“The deaths have brought attention to much more fundamental problems,” he said. Ravi Chellam, coordinator of Biodiversity Collaborative, called the programme “a vanity project” and said it was at best creating “a glorified safari park” that had little to do with conservation and could have a negative effect on the health of the animals and on wider conservation efforts in India. So far only three of the big cats have been released into the park and 17 remain in human captivity in the enclosure. There is also concern that India lacks the expertise to properly handle the cheetahs, especially as they remained in captivity for so long. They said four cheetah cubs had also been born since they were brought to India.īut for wildlife experts critical of the reintroduction experiment, the supreme court’s acknowledgment that Kuno is not suitable has come too late. Scientists in India leading the reintroduction efforts have said deaths are to be expected and are not symptomatic of a failure of the project. Why don’t you explore for more suitable habitat than Kuno?” said the bench.
“They need to be protected, they need to be given suitable habitat. They called on the government to “rise above politics” and consider homing some of the cheetahs in other states such as Rajasthan, where the opposition party rules at the state level. There is too much concentration of cheetahs in one place,” said the bench of judges. “It appears that Kuno is not sufficient for so many cheetahs. In a supreme court hearing last week, the judges claimed Kuno national park was an unfit home for dozens of African cheetahs. Sasha, a male, died from a pre-existing medical condition in March, another died in April and a female, Daksha, died this month in a violent mating after she was put in an enclosure with two other males. The concerns have been heightened in recent weeks after the deaths of three of the cheetahs still being held in captivity in the fenced enclosure inside Kuno, months after arriving in India. In Kuno their terrain will be less than 500 square miles. However, the programme was criticised by many wildlife and conservation experts, who accused the Modi government of a rushed “publicity stunt” and alleged that Kuno national park was an unsuitable habitat for so many cheetahs, which usually require vast habitats of thousands of square miles to roam. Another 12 African cheetahs have since been flown over and the plan is to release a total of 50 over the next five to 10 years. The first eight cheetahs arrived amid much fanfare, with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, releasing them into a small fenced enclosure on his 72nd birthday.
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