Why the biggest successes of India’s Project Cheetah are also its biggest worries

When they were brought to India, their homes were small enclosures for them to adapt to a new country and climate. A year later, more arrived and their living accommodations were expanded to larger sealed off areas. Two years later, after multiple deaths and cubs, the cheetahs of Kuno National Park could finally have their first taste of complete freedom and the risks that come with it. Project Cheetah, which began in September 2022, has seen multiple successes and setbacks. Of the 20 cheetahs brought from Namibia and South Africa, only 13 remain. There have been 17 cheetah cubs born in India during this period, of which five died due to the extreme summer heat in Madhya Pradesh. But this year could see the start of the second phase of the species’ reintroduction to India. Not only could the cheetahs be allowed to live in the wild, but the hope is that cheetahs will be introduced in other parks. mediumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om1p5JKJfFAThe big plus: cheetah population has grownOfficials associated with Project Cheetah say the project has exceeded all goals. Among the successes cited are:The cheetah population has grown faster than the projected 5% annual rate at the planning stage.Kuno hosts 25 cheetahs: 13 adults and 12 cubs born in Kuno.The survival rate for adults is 65% — well above the 50% predicted in the action plan.The survival rate of cubs is an even more impressive 70.5%.The surviving cheetahs are healthyThe project has overcome the several deaths of cheetahs seen initiallyThe winter months in South Africa are June, July and August. African cheetahs grow thick fur in those months – an evolutionary mechanism to cope with cold.However, in India, those are the months of the monsoon where it’s hot and humid. Once they were brought to Kuno, many of the cheetahs suffered skin infections that were aggravated by the radio collars attached to them to keep track of them. Thankfully, and as predicted by a veterinary expert, the cheetahs adapted to Indian weather by the monsoon of 2024.India’s environment minister Bhupender Yadav hailed the project for overcoming the challenges it faced. "Today, as the world watches these cheetah cubs thrive in their natural habitat, we celebrate not just their survival but the resilience and dedication of all involved in these efforts. This is just the beginning of restoring balance to our ecosystems. Many more milestones lie ahead!" Yadav posted on X. 2 Years of Cheetahs!

Two years ago, we embarked on a historic journey to reintroduce cheetahs in India after nearly 70 years.

The project, envisioned by PM Shri @narendramodi ji, a pioneering effort globally, symbolizes hope for successfully restoring lost wildlife populations… pic.twitter.com/iaTJf0Ivw7

— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) September 17, 2024 In the wild, but not freeWhile the population of cheetahs seems to have been stabilised, one big question is whether the project would have been as successful if they had stuck to the original plan of releasing the cheetahs in forests after a period of acclimatisation. Project Cheetah’s biggest successes are a product of keeping the animals in a very controlled environment. There’s 24x7 monitoring, vets are at hand, and even feeds are arranged when required.The original plan was to release all cheetahs into the wild after two months of acclimatisation. In December 2023, the steering committee had granted an in-principle approval for the release of cheetahs into the wilderness of Kuno. But that still hasn’t happened and officials remain non-committal on when they will be released. 113550567The cheetahs remain restricted to their enclosures called ‘bomas’, which restrict their movement and limit the entry of competing predators. Experts worry that prolonged stays in enclosures will impact cheetahs’ fitness and hunting abilities.Cheetah’s territorial range varies from 600 sq km to as much as 3,000 sq km. That’s believed to be the reason cheetahs began wandering out of Kuno almost as soon as they were released into the wild. Finding them and bringing them turned out to be a major challenge for forest officials. Two cheetahs, Pawan and Aasha, travelled as much as 100 km from Kuno but were brought back.The population growth of cheetahs within Kuno national park is also a concern. The initial plan had worked on the assumption that the 3,200 sq km Kuno forest area can be home to 21 cheetahs. Recent surveys show Kuno’s true carrying capacity may be closer to 12 cheetahs, a number that’s already been breached. The success in their population growth is now inducing overcrowding and stressed conditions.“We need to revise the action plan,” said a forest officer, speaking off-record.Vincent van der Merwe, founder and director of The Metapopulation Initiative (TMI) that is working on the relocation of cheetahs from South Africa, said a combination of factors forced the restriction of the cheetahs so far. “When cheetahs are introduced in an area where they have been extinct for a long time, the communication network is gone. These communication hubs include trees or rocks where females signal, they’re oestrous (in heat), and where males mark their territories,” he told TOI. In areas like Kuno, where there were no cheetahs before their arrival, the cheetahs simply walked around in search of other cheetahs and resulted in them walking out of the national park, he said. In the two years since cheetahs were introduced in Kuno, and were allowed to roam, they came near human settlements distant from the national park. A fear of human-cheetah conflicts resulted in them being brought back to the enclosures. 113550587“The hostile media response to high cheetah mortality contributed to a state of panic, and order needed to be restored. The project naturally shifted to breeding in fenced enclosures stocked with prey species,” van der Merwe said. With the cheetahs being introduced into the wild, he said we should expect more wandering and deaths. He also said the project must now look beyond Kuno. “Kuno is a marginal habitat for cheetahs, supporting low density prey populations whilst having a high density of competing predators. It is relatively small and not fenced. Wild free-ranging cheetahs are likely to struggle at Kuno well into the future, and alternative reintroduction sites need to be established as a matter of urgency,” he said. The other local apex predatorNew plans include increasing the park’s carrying capacity through habitat restoration. One idea is to secure potential cheetah habitats with fencing, to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.But there’s also the problem of the national park’s existing apex predator: the leopard. Despite the two animals being easily distinguishable, it’s a problem when both species hunt around the same spot. Since the start of the project, experts have worried about whether there was enough prey for the cheetahs. More than 1,000 chital have so far been shifted from various protected areas to Kuno and more are on the way. medium113550714However, officials believe many of the deer have ended up as leopards’ meals. An official annual report of the project has suggested the creation of a ‘prey factory’. An ‘overcrowding’ of predators could result in dangerous competition for prey. There have been no reports of battles between cheetahs and leopards so far in Kuno. But peaceful coexistence is not a certainty. “In Africa, leopards and lions are known to prey on cheetahs, stealing their food and killing their cubs. While Indian leopards are smaller and less aggressive than African ones, their presence could still pose a threat. Moreover, Indian leopards have not interacted with cheetahs for 75 years, making their behaviour in the current context unpredictable,” said an expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity.There’s also the fact that officials have been doing a fair bit of ‘hunting’ for the cheetahs. Officials at Kuno acknowledge that two years on, they often have to slaughter goats and buffalos to feed cheetahs. “Since we monitor cheetahs closely, if we see a ‘hanging belly’, we realise it hasn’t been able to make a successful hunt and hasn’t eaten for two-three days. So, we feed it prepared meat,” an official told TOI, speaking off-record.An international cheetah expert said that when cheetahs made their first kills in India after quarantine, they ate everything, except for the entrails of prey. “I have never seen a cheetah pick an ungulate clean like that. They really wanted wild prey,” he told TOI off-record.“In the hunting bomas where they are now, cheetahs are hunting on their own, while being monitored by field teams,” he said, adding, “If for some reason a cheetah is not hunting or having a successful hunt, the field teams will supplement their feed.” mediumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qte9deRknqUYear three: a new corridor and hopeConservationist Valmik Thapar had argued in a column that the translocation of the cheetahs is a colossal mistake and taxpayer money would be better spent on conserving existing endangered species. “Before this project becomes more awkward and embarrassing for us all, it should be modified and converted into a completely captive cheetah project where a large area is enclosed, and the remaining cheetahs are looked after, fed, and visitors are permitted to drive into this area and observe one of the most fascinating and gracious big cats that has a huge history of being ‘man’s true best friend’,” he wrote. The cheetahs do remain in fragile health after being transported from Africa to India and some of the deaths of cheetahs weren’t predicted in the original action plan. But neither was the high number of births of cubs. International experts have said it takes decades for a cheetah translocation to find equilibrium. Kuno is just a couple of years old.“Remember Project Cheetah is an experiment to see if a translocated African species could survive in Indian habitat,” a global expert, with a close-up view of the Kuno ‘experiment’ said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhhW-kkii7UThere’s now a plan is to create a ‘cheetah corridor’ between Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which will be a contiguous area between Kuno National Park, the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in MP (where the next group of African cheetahs is expected to arrive), and a dozen protected areas in Rajasthan, including Mukundara, Ramgarh Vishdhari, Ranthambore, Bhainsrorgarh, Chambal Gharial, and Shergarh sanctuaries."The cheetahs released in Kuno Palpur, which borders Rajasthan, have often crossed into the neighbouring state. Creating a designated corridor will ensure they receive the same level of protection in Rajasthan as they do in Kuno," said an official.MTI’s van der Merwe said he’s been struck by the slow working of the Indian bureaucracy on the project, and not always for good reasons. However, he listed a number of factors that he sees crucial for the project to succeed: Reintroduction sites in drier areas (Rajasthan and Gujarat), where the species naturally does better, need to be prioritised.Project Cheetah cannot rely on just one reintroduction site for success. All eggs are currently in one basket. Reintroductions into other protected areas are planned and should be encouraged as a matter of urgency.The fact that an ‘ideal’ reintroduction site in Rajasthan, the fenced portion of Mukundara Hills, is being ignored for political reasons is extremely frustrating.Although the concept of wildlife fencing is at odds with Indian conservation philosophy, it must be embraced during the initial stages of Project Cheetah, else the communication hubs will never be re-established, and reintroduced cheetahs in India will simply continue to wander on a ‘road to nowhere’. If the ‘winter coat’ issue persists, then India will have to identify alternative sources of cheetah from the northern hemisphere. Despite the doubts and setbacks, for now, the project will continue at full steam with possible new sites and further experiments with giving the existing cheetahs more freedom. However, while there have been some successes, two years later, the outcome of the project remains as uncertain as when it started.Reporting by P Naveen