Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2023

Kuno Cheetah Deaths: What Recent Incidents Reveal About India’s Conservation Effort

Multiple cheetah deaths in Kuno raise questions about habitat limits, prey scarcity, and management. A data-driven look at the challenges facing India’s cheetah project T wo back-to-back cheetah deaths—one from a suspected collision inside the forest and another caused by a speeding vehicle—have once again pushed the spotlight onto the ambitious yet troubled cheetah introduction project in Kuno National Park . While officials have issued preliminary statements, the absence of publicly released post-mortem and investigation reports related to the past such cases has deepened concerns about transparency at a time when clarity is essential. The recent incidents highlight the ecological and management challenges that continue to shape the project’s uncertain trajectory. Each Loss Is Significant Setback On December 5, Friday, one of Veera’s cubs recently released into the open forest, died after reportedly separating from its mother. Just two days later, on December 7, another young cheetah...

A Tiger Procession in Ranthambhore

  A video of tiger sighting  going viral on social media and shot in   Ranthambhore national park with  200 to 300 tourists following the cat in canters and gypsies stunned the wildlife lovers. Despite the presence of a large tourist crowd the tiger was walking down the dusty pathway of the park – unimpressed and undeterred. A senior wildlife official termed it an “unpleasant sight” and “disgusting to say the least''. For the tourists, the tiger  here seems to have become an object of entertainment while for the tourist operators and the forest department, a revenue generating commodity. The conservation aspect seems to be missing somewhere. Tiger Sandwitched Between Tourist Vehicles    There were at least seven canters and some gypsies full of tourists, behind the tiger -identified as T121- and as many vehicles in front of the cat moving in reverse direction. The tiger was sandwiched between the vehicles near a junction of zone number 4 and 5....

Is Forest Fencing Issue Impacting Cheetah Project ?

  When the Indian authorities are gearing up for the release of more cheetahs in the open forests of Kuno national park , serious differences seem to have emerged between a key African cheetah expert and the Indian officials at the helm of affairs of cheetah introduction programme in India. The difference  of opinion  on the issues of  fenced jungle for cheetahs ,lack of prey  and  man power  emerged after the death of six cheetahs including three  cubs .Though the cheetah action plan already mentions high mortality in the reintroduction of the African species of the cat in India, half a dozen cheetah deaths seems to have rattled the Indo-African team managing the spotted cat in Kuno. Eight months after the release of the cats from Africa by the Prime Minister Modi in September last year, many apprehensions expressed by a number of   experts and biologists over the project seem to have come true. Questions are being raised again- Wh...