Three years on, India’s cheetah reintroduction struggles with poor science, delays, and missed grassland goals. In September 2022, the arrival of eight cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno National Park was hailed as a conservation milestone. Five months later in February 2024, 12 more spotted cats arrived from South Africa. The initiative, branded Project Cheetah, carried lofty ambitions. It aimed not just to restore the world’s fastest land animal to India’s landscapes, but to revive open natural ecosystems (ONEs) — the grasslands, scrublands, and savannahs that are among the country’s most neglected habitats. By reintroducing a top predator, policymakers hoped to spark wider conservation attention, diversify India’s wildlife portfolio beyond tigers and forests, and make ecological amends for a human-caused extinction. The Cheetah Action Plan set out a clear roadmap: import 5–10 cheetahs annually for a decade, create a metapopulation across multiple states, secure and restore grassland hab...
In a rare success against the tiger killers, ten poachers were convicted by a court in Katni, a small town surrounded by thick jungles, in Madhya Pradesh. It took over 8 years’ of investigations and numerous court hearings to bring the guilty to the book. The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Katni, Indukant Tiwari pronounced rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and a fine of Rs 10,000 on each,on February 8 this year. On a cold wintery night in December 2012, the full grown tiger was killed by passing electricity from a 10000 KV supply line passing over the farm field of Pappu Kol, an electrician in a small village of Badwah ,Barahi, barely 12 kms away from Katni town. The only crime of the big cat was that it was visible in fields straying from the thick forest area in Badwah. Kol along with his nine other accomplices watched the tiger for few days and then decided to kill.
Electrocution Leads to Painful Death
The forest department learnt about the incident almost 30 hours after the death of the tiger. A team of two veterinarians – Dr Nitin and Sanjeev Gupta posted at the nearby Bandhavgarh national park inspected the crime scene. The daring advocate from Katni Manjula Shrivastava who ensured that wildlife criminals go to jail said quoting the court order, “ the tiger body had sever burn and internal body parts including the heart, lungs, liver and brain had damaged”. She has been representing the state forest department in many cases and some of the dreaded wildlife criminals are punished after her hard work in courts. Kol told the court that the wires were spread to almost 300 meters of distance and the current was spread to kill the tiger. Over 500 meters of GI- wire and other material used to poach the tiger were later recovered from the village and farm fields.
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Strategically placed between Bandhavgarh and Panna tiger reserves, Katni is one of the biggest junctions of India. “ It has been a heaven for wildlife smugglers who are involved in trafficking of body parts of the animals as large number of trains crisscross the railway yard,” a senior police officer posted in the district said. A large number of professional poachers also live around Katni who have been actively involved in tiger and leopard killings across Indian jungles. “ Many of them have been in and out of jails but they are still engaged in poaching. During the poaching season in winters, many of them get contracts for tiger killings from international syndicate”, cops said.
Myths Behind Tiger Killings
Tiger scare might have been the reason behind the killing of the majestic animal by Pappu Kol and his accomplices , Ramdas Kol ,Rajju Lunia, Munda Kol, Sukhdeen ,Gulzari , Sandeep Lunia , Uday Singh, Buddhu Kol ,Rajesh alias Durbal Yadav. Experts claim such killings come under “the category of man -animal conflict.” The Kol tribals thought the tiger would harm them”, said a senior IFS officer posted in the district. He said that “in the next few years, atleast 4 more tigers were killed near the same spot”.
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This also highlighted the fact that the tigers are “unsafe” outside the national parks and that they need “ safe passage or forest corridors” to travel from one jungle to other. “The way human population is increasing, we also need to have more protected areas”, he said. Besides consumption of tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicines and their hides, the tigers are also killed for its nails, teeth and whiskers, said Manjula Shrivastava, the senior advocate who specializes in wildlife crime. Many people believe that they get vigor by wearing lockets carrying tiger teeth and nails. The tiger whiskers are very tough like plastic wire and there is a superstition that they are poisonous. There is a “belief” of using them as a murder -weapon by making people consume it “unknowingly”. “It may be sharp and pointed and may lead to bleeding but I wonder why anyone would want to eat a tiger whisker !!”, asks a veterinarians associated for long with tigers in a national park. These body parts are also used for sorcering in many parts of India. “ Such stories”, said a senior IFS officer, “ are far far away from truth and reality and their propaganda only leads to more tiger poaching”.
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