India's Cheetah Translocation Project | 26 Apr 2023

Why in News?

India's ambitious Cheetah Translocation Project is facing a new set of challenges as two cheetahs have died, bringing the number of cheetahs left in the project to 18 out of the initial 20.

• Uday, a six-year-old male cheetah, died on April 23, 2023, in Kuno National Park, and Sasha, a five-year-old female cheetah, died on March 27, 2023, in the same park.
• Therefore, the government is now considering alternative conservation models, such as the South African model of conserving cheetahs in fenced reserves.

Were these Deaths Expected?

• The project anticipated a high mortality rate, and its short-term goal was to achieve a 50% survival rate for the first year, which is 10 out of 20 cheetahs.
  • However, experts pointed out that the project had overestimated Kuno National Park's carrying capacity for cheetahs, and this added pressure on the project staff to look for alternative sites.
• Causes of Death:
  • A South African study found that predation was the biggest killer, accounting for 53.2% of cheetah mortality. Lions, leopards, hyenas, and jackals were primarily responsible.
    • Cheetahs suffer very high cub mortality – up to 90% in protected areas – mainly due to predation.
    • In Africa, the lion is the chief predator of cheetahs; in India, where lions are absent (except in Gujarat), leopards are likely to slip into that role in potential cheetah landscapes.
  • Other causes of mortality can be holding camps, immobilization/transit, tracking devices, and other wildlife killing cheetah (cubs) including warthogs, baboons, snakes, elephants, crocodiles, vultures, zebras, and even ostriches.

What are the Options Available to the Project?

• The authorities are exploring the possibility of preparing Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Chambal River valley as the second home for cheetahs.
• Another option is to move a few cheetahs from Kuno to the safety of an 80-sq-km fenced area in Rajasthan's Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve.
  • However, both options would mean shifting the project's goal from establishing the cheetah in an open landscape to managing the African imports as a few pocket populations in fenced-in or restricted areas.

Way Forward

• The success of the cheetah project should align with India's traditional conservation ethos. India's conservation approach emphasizes protecting naturally dispersing wildlife in viable non-fragmented habitats.
• The Cheetah Project can choose to cut the risk by settling for the South African model of retaining a few pocket populations in fenced-in reserves.
  • However, keeping cheetahs in leopard-proof enclosures might not be a sustainable solution. Also, repeated sedate-and-recover interventions to restrict cheetahs to sanctuaries and national parks can harm the animals.

Source: IE