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...
Sorry again to begin the New Year on a negative note. In less than a month’s time, when wildlife lovers have not forgotten the gruesome incident of a tiger poaching and the images of the tiger carcass hanging from a tendu tree, another tiger was killed. The December 7 tiger poaching had happened 20 kms away from the park this time the tiger poaching has taken place right inside Panna national park . The tiger was electrocuted in Kishenganj range of buffer zone of the tiger reserve. Casual Appoach of Park Management The latest case of tiger poaching was reported on the intervening night of January 3 and 4. In fact a hyena was also electrocuted. It was a well built beautiful tiger that lost life right inside the park where poachers used the supply line passing from the park to kill the animal. But more depressing was a statement of the park director, Brajendra Jha who said this was part of the birth of tigers and their death. More tigers ha...