African Cheetah Introduction to India Raises Serious Concerns

African cheetah introduction to India raises serious concerns amongst scientists and suggests an alternative plan.

The Cheetah Introduction Action Plan developed by the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Tiger Conservation Authority of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, is incomplete since many scientific findings from contemporary work on cheetah demographics do not seem to have been factored into the plan.

The team of scientists comprising cheetah and Indian carnivore biologists from Carnassials Global (India), University of Porto / CIBIO (Portugal), Metastring Foundation (India), University of Mpumalanga (South Africa), Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (India), CSIRO (Australia), Centre for Wildlife Studies (India) and Wageningen University (The Netherlands) raise serious concerns on the highly-publicised and ongoing plan to introduce African cheetahs in India.

Their letter to the Editor was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Dr. Arjun Gopalaswamy, Founder and Chief Scientist, Carnassials Global (India), the lead author of this letter, wildlife and statistical ecologist, who has been involved in quantitative assessments of cheetahs and other big cat populations in Asia and Africa for over two decades says: “The plan ignores crucial scientific findings from important, recent demographic studies on free-ranging cheetahs. This can prove to be a costly mistake because the cheetah-carrying capacities assumed in the plan rely entirely on projections made from a single, likely flawed, density estimate from Namibia from over a decade ago.

We have already seen that despite massive investments made in counting tigers at a country-wide scale, on account of taking a similarly truncated view of abundance estimation science, India’s recent, official claims of doubling tiger numbers over a 12-year period quickly became scientifically indefensible. It is therefore advisable to prepare a completely revised, rigorous, fully science-based action plan if India were to proceed with this idea of introducing cheetahs in the future.”

The authors worry that there has not been sufficient consultation with experts in cheetah ecology and large carnivore conservation prior to undertaking this project. Dr Femke Broekhuis, Assistant Professor, Wildlife Ecology andConservation Group, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands), who has studied free-ranging cheetahs in Africa for over 15 years and a corresponding author of the letter, says: “Cheetah populations in Africa and Iran are under threat and there is no doubt that they are in need of conservation action. However, it is unlikely that introducing cheetahs to India is going to contribute to cheetah conservation in a meaningful way. If anything it distracts from the real issues at hand which include habitat loss and the illegal cheetah trade. Based on some of our work, and that of other cheetah researchers, we know that free-ranging cheetahs, even those that reside in prey-rich areas, require a lot of space. Kuno does not provide this space and therefore there is a high chance that the introduced cheetahs will move beyond the park boundaries and encounter people, livestock and domestic dogs. This may lead to a harmful situation for both the cheetahs and the people living in the area. Many of these risks can be mitigated if a wider group of relevant experts are consulted before commencing such projects.”

Incidentally, the first release site, Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state, was identified as the site to translocate and reintroduce Asiatic lions to establish a second free-ranging population. Currently, Asiatic lions occur as a single population in and around the Gir forest in Gujarat state. Dr Ravi Chellam, CEO of Metastring Foundation (India), and a co-author of this letter, who was deeply engaged in the plan to reintroduce the Asiatic lions to Kuno says: “Based on field surveys Kuno was identified as the place to reintroduce Asiatic lions in 1995. Large investments were made by the Government of India and the State Government of Madhya Pradesh for this reintroduction, which included the resettlement of 24 villages to create the National Park. In 2011-12 the plan to introduce African cheetahs into Kuno was announced. The Supreme Court in a judgement dated 15th April 2013 shot down this plan and ordered that the Asiatic lions should be reintroduced to Kuno within six months. But, the Asiatic lions have not made it to Kuno yet. Instead, paradoxically, cheetahs from Namibia have arrived in Kuno. There is no logic. In fact, by simply following the Supreme Court order and going ahead with the reintroduction of the Asiatic lion and simultaneously creating sufficient space in a more suitable habitat for cheetahs, both species will benefit”.

The authors of the letter question the motivation for such a hasty and hurried transportation of cheetahs from Africa to India. Dr Gus Mills, from the School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga (South Africa), who has studied free-ranging cheetahs for several decades and a co-author of this letter says: “The essence of cheetah conservation should involve creating adequate areas for free-ranging cheetahs to carry out their functional role in ecosystems, without management. Some of us expressed the concern about 14 years ago in a workshop when the practice of managed metapopulation of ‘excess’ cheetahs within fenced reserves was first formally discussed. We worried then that this practice does not meaningfully contribute to the conservation of free-ranging cheetahs by consolidating sufficient habitat and establishing free-ranging, naturally regulated populations. This practice is not only unsustainable but can be very distracting from what is really important for cheetah conservation and is little better than creating a series of glorified safari parks.

This ill-advised introduction of cheetahs from Namibia to India appears to be exactly that – an unnecessary distraction. It is now a good opportunity for practitioners working on managed metapopulations of cheetahs within fenced-in reserves to redirect their skills and demonstratively create a free-ranging, naturally regulated cheetah population within southern Africa first before recommending this plan to other countries. This will require cooperation between neighbours to take down a number of fences”.

Carnivore biologists working in India worry that there is simply not enough space for free-ranging cheetahs now and steps must be taken to ensure that sufficient wild cheetah habitat is first made available before such an idea is even considered. Dr Abi Tamim Vanak, Senior Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (India), and a co-author of this letter have been involved in researching carnivores (including African cheetahs) in grassland habitats for over a decade, says: “India’s potential cheetah habitat consisting of grasslands and savannas continue to be legally misclassified as ‘Wastelands’, and only 5% of the country’s open natural ecosystems are protected. Given the rapid rate of habitat loss, if we don’t do the right things now, then in 10 years’ time when the cheetahs are ready to find a new home in India, there won’t be any habitat left. There is thus a need for policy reforms both at the national and local level to immediately secure India’s grasslands and savannas”.

The authors suggest that if India is very keen to contribute to the conservation of cheetahs, it could do so by redirecting its massive, initial budget of GBP 48 million towards directly saving cheetahs in their extant habitats within Asia and Africa. Dr Leili Khalatbari, a researcher at CIBIO, University of Porto (Portugal), who has been studying cheetahs in Iran for over a decade, and a co-author of this letter says: “Asiatic cheetahs are Critically Endangered and occur as a very small population within Iran. Yet, they have spread over 200,000 sq km of habitat within Iran. Conservation of Asiatic cheetah faces several difficulties, one of them is lack of funding. Such conservation investments can be well-used within Iran to save and revive cheetah populations. When the Asiatic population recovers, some of them can be reintroduced in India at a later date. In the meantime, the Indian grasslands can be restored to be able to support enough prey. ”Similarly, Dr David Thuo, a researcher who has been studying cheetahs in Kenya for close to a decade and a co-author of this letter said: “Although free-ranging cheetah populations within Africa face challenges, studies have shown that targeted work towards cheetah habitat protection and ensuring tolerance does work. Such investments, if directed to cheetah conservation directly on the ground, can ensure meaningful impact for cheetah conservation”.

The plan appears to be modelled after India’s tiger conservation efforts in recovering sporadic populations over the past 50 years. However, the exaggerated claims of success with tigers have been challenged repeatedly by scientists. Dr Ullas Karanth, Emeritus Scientist, Centre for Wildlife Studies (India), one of the world’s leading conservation scientists working on tigers and other big cats and a co-author of the letter says: “India is home to internationally well-known carnivore and quantitative ecologists. A project of such importance requires genuine consultations and collaborations with the best intellectual capacity in the country. But, this capacity was simply not harnessed. As a result, this expensive, poorly conceived plan has no chance of establishing a viable self-sustaining population of free-ranging cheetahs – a vision which has been eloquently articulated by the Indian Prime Minister. It is likely to fail given the severe constraints of habitat quality and socioeconomic pressures. Because the project chose to put ‘the cart before the horse’, it may end up as just another fenced-in zoo ”.

In their letter, the authors indicate that there are no shortcuts to saving cheetahs in the wild. This project, whilst generating tremendous media attention, appears to be one that is merely relocating a conservation problem internationally rather than solving a local one. The donors (Africa) appear to be signalling a conservation virtue out of their difficulty in managing a surplus of fenced-in cheetahs since corresponding wild spaces have not been created locally for them. And the receivers (India) appear to have based their plan entirely on the charisma and the physical presence of the cheetah to motivate unrealistically swift and expanded conservation action on the ground. The authors of the Letter argue that rather than taking such an approach which, by design, would likely result in the loss of a large number of cheetahs, it is better to take a rigorous science-based approach, which would entail creating the necessary conditions within India for viable, free-ranging cheetah populations – as envisioned by India’s Prime Minister – before cheetahs are introduced in India.

Carnassials Global news release: 19th October 2022

The letter to the Editor, entitled introducing African cheetahs to India is an ill-advised conservation attempt’, is published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

This letter was co-authored by Arjun M. Gopalaswamy (Carnassials Global), Leili Khalatbari (University of Portugal), Ravi Chellam (Metastring Foundation), Gus Mills (University of Mpumalanga), Abi Tamim Vanak (AshokaTrust for Ecology and the Environment), David Thuo (CSIRO), Ullas Karanth (Centre for Wildlife Studies) and Femke Broekhuis (Wageningen University).

MEDIA CONTACTS:

1. Dr Arjun M. Gopalaswamy ([email protected])- Lead and Corresponding author [Phone: +91 80508 21192 between 9 am – 6 pm IST Mon -Fri]
2. Dr. Femke Broekhuis ([email protected]) – Corresponding Author
3. Dr Leili Khalatbari ([email protected])
4. Dr Michael G. L. Mills([email protected])
5. Dr Ravi Chellam ([email protected])
6. Dr David Thuo ([email protected])
7. Dr. Abi Tamim Vanak ([email protected])
8. Dr K. Ullas Karanth ([email protected])