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...
Officials in the Union ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC&C) and those involved in cheetah translocation in Namibia and South Africa heaved a huge sigh of relief after Nirva, the female cheetah missing since July 21 was captured in Kuno national park. But the operation to capture Nirva was a huge exercise and, perhaps, has no parallel in the history of wildlife conservation in India. Spreading over 150 hours stretched in 22 days, more than 100 forest department personnel, looked out for a cheetah in a rain drenched jungle. Day in , day out ,they walked on foot, rode elephants, flew drones and deployed dogs in search of the cheetah. Hard work and perseverance paid off and Nirva was caught and captured. “Nirva is healthy and has been kept inside boma for further health check-up”, said Aseem Shrivastava, the chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh.
Nirva in Kuno was Like Needle in Haystack
Operation Nirva began in the backdrop of three cheetah death- Tejas, Suraj and Tbilisi or Dhatri between July 11 and August1- and the reason for their demise was same- septicemia shock because of satellite collar abrasion and growth of maggots in the wound. Cheetah casualties rattled the officials derailing the ambitious first ever intercontinental cheetah introduction project. Officials decided to recapture all the cheetahs in the wild to check their collars and prevent further loss of the animals. All but Nirva were caught and brought back to enclosures. Nirva’s collar had developed some technical snag and it stopped emitting signals. Under the thick green cover of the dry deciduous Kuno, locating a cheetah was like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. It was still hot and humid and she still had a collar around her, however it was non functional, there were all the possibilities of abrasion and growth of maggots, the cause of the last three cheetah casualties.
Also read: Bringing African Cheetahs to India a Wrong Decision ?
As the officials were preparing for the worst, the search for Nirva began. All the available resources in Kuno were pooled together to launch a massive hunt for the elusive animal. “Daily 15-20 sq km area was being searched. Along with this, villagers were informed about Nirva and any information received from them was immediately checked and verified”, said the PCCF (wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava. There was a time when Nirva remained untraceable for over a week leading to apprehensions over her well being.
Longest Wait For Sunrise
When the marathon exercise was underway, the thermal night vision drones with thermal turned out to be the most useful tool. Two such cameras were deployed. It was a challenging task to operate the flying machines in the pitch dark jungle. Working for long during unearthly hours at a stretch, drone operators started falling sick but the operation continued when Nirva was first located by one such sortie. There was a glimmer of hope. But the animal would soon vanish in the wild the next morning. Tracking her pugmarks the forest rangers and forest guards would follow the trail but in vain. Mahouts would further penetrate the jungle terrain where the green soldiers on foot could reach but they also failed to track the spotted cat. “Unlike tigers, cheetahs don't move out at night. It has an altogether different behavior. But during the day it moves fast. `` said a wildlife expert. There were occasions when Nirva was located but was away from the reach of the 30 meters range of the tranquilizing gun. “A tiger may let veterinarians armed with tranquilising guns and mahouts reach closer but a wild cheetah won’t”, said an officer.
Also read: Not Leopards, A Different 'Predator' is Killing Kuno Cheetahs
“ In the morning of August 12 , suddenly the location from the satellite was received providing her location of August 11 evening. Few more locations were also received on the same day”, said the PCCF (wildlife) , Shrivastava. Drone cameras confirmed the location on August -12 night. Amidst the nocturnal sounds of jungle, the drone team positioned themselves at the same place , a dog squad was deployed and the veterinarians were ready with their tranquilizing guns. They waited for the sunrise. And it was the longst wait . At the crack of dawn, the whole team proceeded closer to the cheetah. One of the vets fired a dart and it was bang on target. Nirva tried to run away but soon collapsed only to be caught by the jubilant Kuno staffers. “Nirva, the female South African cheetah captured successfully today (13/08/2023) morning at around 10 am in Dhoret range of Kuno National Park for health check-up”, said the PCCF (wildlife) after the capture. He said all the 15 cheetahs (7 males, 7 females and 1 female cub) in Kuno National Park are now in bomas and healthy and are continuously monitored on health parameters by the Kuno veterinary team. The weather is still hot and humid and cheetahs collars are yet to be replaced. They will remain in bomas till the monsoon is over and will be released at the onset of winters.
By Deshdeep Saxena
Representational Images Courtsey Dr Adrian Tordiffe
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