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...
Crown jewel of Project Tiger, Kanha National Park is heading towards a major crisis. Left wing extremists or Naxalites have spread their operations in the jungle spreading their tentacles inside the core zone of the tiger reserve . In the last post, we mentioned how maoists' presence impacted Palamu tiger reserve. Recently, they killed a field frontline personnel in Kanha creating panic from the top to bottom in the park team. As tigers watch movemet of the outlaws from a distance, they too are under threat. Global Tiger Forum, an inter-governmental international organistion for the conservation of tiger in the wild, has sought intervention of the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh who continues to be tightlipped.
Tiger Hotspot In Red Corridor
This is bad news for Kanha, a globally acclaimed tigerhotspot and also a setback to all the wildlife lovers. Kanha national park was created on June 1,1955 and was designated as a tiger reserve in 1973 under Project Tiger. One of the biggest tiger reserves of the country, it is spread over an area of 940 square km in the two districts Mandla and Balaghat. Together with a surrounding buffer zone of 1,067 sq km and the neighbouring 110 square km Phen Sanctuary, it forms the Kanha tiger reserve,the largest national park in central India. Besides housing over 70 tigers, the park also hosts leopards, sloth bear, barasingha, spotted deer, sambhar and dhole(wild dogs) among other species of wildlife. The lowland forst in Kanha is a mixture of sal (Shorea robusta) and other mixed-forest trees, interspersed with meadows. The highland forests are tropical moist, dry deciduous type and of a completely different nature from bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) on slope.
Also read: Rape of a Jungle :Palamu National Park
A very popular wildlife destination world over,Kanha is now also an important point in the red corridor of the Maoists. About four years ago, they started operations in Kanha from Balaghat district which they were also using as a transit point to cross over from naxal infested Chattisgarh to Mahatashtra,police sources said. From the revenue area in Baihar sub -division of Balaghat district , they entered the tiger reserve , first in Mukki range and then spread to other parts. They have increased their area of operation in Balaghat and the parts of the park in Mandla bordering Balaghat , forest department sources admitted. In fact, a " major part" of the tiger reserve is in their grip. The top political leadership of the state and the country are “ very well aware” of the crisis but so far no action has been initiated. Operations must be carry out to immediately flush out the outlaws.
Global Tiger Forum Seeks Action
The Global Tiger Forum is working with all the 13 countriesin the world where tigers are found. It has expressed concern over the development. Its secretary general Rajesh Gopal, who was also director of Kanha and additional director general of Project Tiger, recommends a task force comprising the officialsof forest department, police and revenue department with the chief minister asthe chairman. He said that the situation calls for looking beyond Kanha at a landscapescale with a portfolio of sectoral integrationinvolving several stakeholder departments , to support community stewardship.
Also Read: Railways' Push For Tracks in Tiger Reserves Contradicts its Green Claims
The effort also needs to be complemented by putting into the use of state of the art technology to step up the surveillance situated intelligent camera on a 24X7 basis to monitor untoward movement of the miscreants. Thus, the activity portfolio needsto have both policing as well as community oriented elements based on landscape level master plan, the GTF secretary general said. Khageshwer Nayak, a former park director of the tiger reserve and member of the state wildlife board in Madhya Pradesh where Kanha is situated, has sought “action by the security forces.”
Insurgents Issues Threat
Meanwhile,the maoists have started issuing threats in Kanha. They have “appealed”to the forest rangers to stop using “ GPS in their mobile phone” while trackingthe forest and patrolling their range. In fact they want the forest rangers not to use “ MSTriIPES, a software monitoring system for tigers’ intensiveprotection and ecological status.
Also read: Deadly Train Tracks Threaten Tiger Corridor In MP
The extremists feel that the software would reveal their location also. The rangers are concerned for their life and this would impact the tiger monitoring. Naxalites targeted many jungles of India in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh ,Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.They use thick forests as hideouts. After a similar presence and later consolidating their situation, there are hardly any forest or tiger management programmes taking place in Palamu national park in Jharkhand and Indrawati national park in Chattisgarh.
Representational Image :Rajiv Sharma.
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