The iconic male tiger, admired by thousands of tourists and feared by rivals, reportedly died after a fierce clash in the Khitauli range. Bandhavgarh National Park has lost one of its most recognizable and beloved tigers. Pujari (priest in English) , the majestic male who ruled hearts as much as territories , is believed to have died following a violent territorial clash with D1, another dominant male from the Khitauli range. Tourist guides noticed his sun-salutation poses at water bodies and a priest like calm in the cat, giving him the moniker. For wildlife lovers and regular visitors to Bandhavgarh, the news marks the end of an unforgettable chapter in the park’s rich tiger history. Several WhatsApp groups of tourists, guides, and wildlife enthusiasts have been flooded with tributes to the iconic tiger. While many stories circulating after Pujari’s death may not fully conform to scientific wildlife interpretations, they reflect the immense popularity of the big cat and t...
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 habitats, and eventually build a self-sustaining free-ranging population.
Timeline: Three Years of Project Cheetah
2022 (September): Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrive at Kuno National Park. Project officially launched.
2023 (February): Twelve more cheetahs translocated from South Africa. One female gives birth to four cubs in March (only one survives).
2023–24: Series of deaths due to infections, stress, and predator conflicts. Concerns grow over prolonged captivity in bomas. No new imports despite the Action Plan target of 5–10 annually.
2024: International hesitation stalls further transfers. Landscape expansion to Gandhi Sagar and Rajasthan remains largely on paper.
2025: Botswana agrees in principle to send eight cheetahs — four in late 2025, four in 2026.
The Stalled Landscape Vision
Equally troubling is the silence on the project’s broader ecological commitments. From the start, Project Cheetah was never supposed to be confined to Kuno. Sites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh were identified for a future cheetah landscape involving about 17000 sq area. For this , 27 forest divisions spread in MP, UP and Rajasthan were identified including 12 forest divisions of Madhya Pradesh, 13 divisions of Rajasthan and two of Uttar Pradesh. But recent reports suggest that MP has postponed this plan after signing an MoU with Rajasthan. Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary was tipped as a second home, and there was talk of preparing sites in Rajasthan for cheetah release .Kuno is a small park spread over about 748 sq kms only. Yet three years later, little has moved on this front. Instead of Rajasthan, Banni Grasslands reserve is being prepared in Gujarat for release of cheetah.
Gandhi Sagar still struggles with a weak prey base. Rajasthan has made no visible progress on site preparation. The larger idea — that cheetah reintroduction would also drive grassland restoration — has barely been acted upon. India’s grasslands continue to be labelled “wastelands,” leaving them vulnerable to diversion for development projects. As a result, the ecological rationale of the cheetah project — to use the predator as an umbrella species for ecosystem revival — has been diluted.
Where Does the Project Stand Today?
To be fair, Project Cheetah has not been without achievements. The very fact that wild-born cubs appeared in India is a milestone. Veterinary protocols, radio-collaring systems, and trained monitoring teams were set up in record time. The project won some recognition, including the “Innovative Initiative Award” at the Eco Warrior Awards. But these gains must be set against sobering realities. As many as 19 cheetahs, including 10 cubs, have died in just three years. Many have spent prolonged periods in captivity rather than roaming free. Management has often appeared ad hoc, with decisions taken in response to crises rather than grounded in long-term ecological planning. The short-term emphasis has shifted from rewilding and landscape revival to merely keeping the surviving cheetahs alive.
So, how should we assess Project Cheetah at the three-year mark? The honest answer is that for its long-term objectives, it is still too early to tell. Reintroductions are complex, slow, and filled with setbacks. It would be unrealistic to expect a thriving free-ranging cheetah population within such a short span. But when it comes to short-term goals, the picture is less encouraging. Implementation has been weak and riddled with deviations from the Action Plan. The project has leaned on poor science and inadequate monitoring, while transparent analysis has been conspicuously absent. Without objective assessment, the same mistakes keep recurring.Equally worrying is the narrative management. There appears to be pressure to present the project as a grand success, even when evidence suggests otherwise. This tendency to celebrate prematurely risks masking the gaps that need fixing.
This brings us to the central paradox of Project Cheetah. On paper, it is about ecological restoration — reviving grasslands, conserving open natural ecosystems, and securing associated species. In practice, however, it has become about crisis management, captive holding, and importing a trickle of cheetahs to maintain appearances.Unless the project realigns itself with its founding purpose, it risks becoming little more than a conservation mascot exercise. Cheetahs cannot survive — let alone thrive — without expansive, healthy habitats, robust prey bases, and landscape-level connectivity. Without those, India risks keeping cheetahs alive in enclosures while their larger purpose — ecosystem revival — slips away.
Lessons for the Future
The way forward requires more humility, more science, and more honesty. India must ensure its import commitments. We also need to introspect what went wrong in relations with our initial cheetah partners -Namibia and South African. Prey base augmentation must be prioritised. Independent scientific monitoring should be encouraged, not resisted. Three years on, Project Cheetah stands at a crossroads. It remains a powerful symbol of ecological ambition, a reminder that India dared to undo an extinction. But it also reveals how ambition can falter when planning is weak, science is sidelined, and politics takes precedence over ecology.
Also read: Future Tense For Cute Cheetah Cubs of Kuno
It is still too early to write the project off, but the warning signs are hard to ignore. Unless India learns from these three lost years and realigns practice with purpose, Project Cheetah may be remembered more for its spectacle than its substance. The coming years will decide whether the cheetah becomes a genuine agent of grassland revival, or simply a conservation curiosity .
By: Deshdeep Saxena
Images courtesy: Kuno National Park
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