Madhya Pradesh Refuses RTI Info on Project Cheetah

• 25 Jul 2024

Why in News?

Recently, The Madhya Pradesh forest department has refused to provide information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 on management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India.

Key Points

• The department cited Section 8(1)(a) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 to withhold information in response to a wildlife activist request.
  • They stated that disclosure could prejudicially affect India's sovereignty, integrity, security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests, relations with a foreign State, or lead to the incitement of an offence.
• The state forest department was requested to provide “management correspondence records of the Cheetah Project in Kuno and Mandsaur”.

Cheetah Reintroduction Project

• The Cheetah Reintroduction Project in India formally commenced on September 17, 2022, to restore the population of cheetahs, which were declared extinct in the country in 1952.
• The project involves the translocation of cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
• The project is implemented by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), and cheetah experts from Namibia and South Africa.