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...
Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book seems to have come alive in Pench tiger reserve. Another black leopard , about a year old cub, is being sighted almost on regular basis in the buffer zone of the national park also known as Mowgli land , immortalized by the Kipling’s creation of the characters in the famous book set up in the landscape spread across Seeonee ( Seoni district) of Madhya Pradesh. Bagheera, a fictional black -leopard -character in the Kipling book, is Mowgli's intelligent guardian.
Bagheera On The Move
The melanistic Indian leopard was a friend, protector and mentor to the "man-cub" Mowgli. The word bagheera is a Hindi term for panther or leopard, although the root word bagh means tiger. This year during the monsoon months of August and September, a black leopard cub was spotted . Rahul Upadhyaya , a forest ranger, told a news agency ,"The black panther has been spotted after a gap of two years. Since the last few days, tourists have spotted the nine-month-old black panther cub with its mother on trees, hills and other areas of the Pench Tiger Reserve's Telia beat."
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Though it is not confirmed, the cub looks like a female and is accompanied by her sibling and mother in the Telia range. The siblings are also making their own kills independently. Recently they killed a langur but it was snatched away by a dominating male leopard. A black leopard was sighted frequently during 2020 . It was seen a few days ago in a non-tourist zone of the park. As a part of the buffer zone was opened, some visitors had regular sightings of the unique wildlife in the Telia zone as the family of the three leopards gorged on a kill.
After the sightings, the twitter handle of the park was buzzing with the breaking news of Bagheera. The tweets were accompanied by videos and pictures courtesy the visitors. “All across the world it usually takes months, sometimes even years to sight a rare animal, however in #Pench one can see the wonders of the natural world much more frequently.” “Baghera with a companion strolling across the #buffer in #Pench”,was another tweet.The tiger reserve shot another tweet inviting tourists to see the black beauty: Baghera with a companion!! Visit Pench and go on a Buffer Safari this monsoon season....
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It tweeted again: Gone in a flash!! Leopards are also superfast & highly agile. Check out how swiftly our Baghera made a dash across the forest road. This was accompanied by a video showing black leopard running accross the jungle road. To generate more interest and add colour, the park tweted again : Visit Pench & you realise why it was an inspiration to #Rudyard #Kipling. While #Baghera the black panther is being sighted regularly for past few days, tourists today saw the #wolfpack being chased by #sherkhan
Ghost of Jungle
Kabini wildlife sanctuary of Nagarhole National park in Karnataka is famous for the sightings of the black leopards. A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca).It is not a subspecies but a melanistic breed of Jaguars and Leopards. In Latin America, they are black Jaguars while in Asia and Africa, they are black leopards. Black panthers have excess black pigments. Though their typical rosettes are also present, they are not visible prominently.
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Veteran veterinarian of Pench National Park Dr Akhilesh Mishra said that , “The term melanism refers to black pigment and its intensity in Pench cub is about 40 % as its rosettes are visible unlike that of Kabini’s black leopard. Pictures from Kabini suggest that the melanistic leopard there is almost 100 % black.” Many visitors attempt night safaris , which were started in a restricted manner in 2021- on the full moon or new moon nights in the jungle. Those who succeeded in Kabini sanctuary also refer to it as “Ghost of the Jungle” . “Its fiery - floating eyes stare at you as its body merges completely with the darkness of the jungle night”.
Credits in Pictures
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