Cheetah translocation project started way back in 2009: Congress

The BJP-led government at the Centre to take credit for the release of African Cheetahs in Kuno National Park, fact remains that it conveniently chose not to acknowledge that Cheetah translocation project started way back in 2009-10.

Hyderabad: While the BJP-led government at the Centre sought to grab headlines and take credit for the release of African Cheetahs in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, fact remains that it conveniently chose not to acknowledge that Cheetah translocation project started way back in 2009-10.

Multiple agencies including Wildlife Institute of India (WII), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and even Wildlife Trust of India had played crucial roles in conducting scientific studies on the feasibility of reintroducing Cheetah in India.

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In 2009, Dr M K Ranjitsinh of Wildlife Trust of India was tasked with preparing a detailed roadmap for the reintroduction of Cheetah in India. This bit of information came to light on Sunday when senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was the then union Minister of State (Independent charge), Environment and Forests, shared a letter that he wrote to Dr Ranjitsinh in October, 2009.

“Please go ahead and prepare a detailed roadmap for the reintroduction of Cheetah which should include a detailed analysis of different potential sites. The analysis should be carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with other organisations like BNHS and WTI. You may also like to take State Forest Departments as part of this study. I expect that the roadmap would be submitted to Ministry of Environment and Forests by end of January, 2010,” the letter from Jairam Ramesh said.

Multiple visits were made by wildlife experts to Cheetah Outreach Centres in South Africa and Namibia to hammer out ways to take up the reintroduction. In a news article that was published this July, Jairam Ramesh also acknowledged that there was a lot of opposition over the proposal to bring Cheetahs from Africa to India.

“When tigers were first translocated to Panna and Sariska during 2009-11, there were many prophets of doom. They were proved wrong. Similar predictions are being made on the Cheetah project. The professionals involved are first-rate and I wish the project the very best,” the Congress leader on Saturday tweeted.

In the last one decade, to ensure reintroduction of Cheetahs to India, top wildlife experts conducted extensive scientific studies and a lot of coordination by Indian diplomats in Namibia was taken up to ensure an agreement to transport the wild cats was reached.

“PM hardly ever acknowledges continuity in governance. The Cheetah project going back to my visit to Capetown on 25.04.2010 is the latest example,” Jairam Ramesh in his tweet, said.

When tigers were first translocated to Panna and Sariska during 2009-11, there were many prophets of doom. They were proved wrong. Similar predictions are being made on the Cheetah project. The professionals involved are first-rate and I wish the project the very best! 2/2

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 17, 2022

This was the letter that launched Project Cheetah in 2009. Our PM is a pathological liar. I couldn’t lay my hands on this letter yesterday because of my preoccupation with the #BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/3AQ18a4bSh

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 18, 2022