Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project - ON HOLD: Reintroduction Project With Cheetahs Imported From Africa Is Currently Put On Hold By India

ON HOLD: Reintroduction Project With Cheetahs Imported From Africa Is Currently Put On Hold By India

As of May 2012 the Indian Supreme Court has put the project of importing Cheetahs from Africa and reintroducing them in India on hold. Some Conservationists have been fighting a legal battle in Indian Supereme Court to get the Indian State Government of Gujarat to break its monopolizing of wild Asiatic Lions and release a few overpopulated prides of Asiatic lions spilling out of Gir National Park for reintroduction in the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighbouring Indian State of Madhya Pradesh which was prepared for them after relocating over 24 villages out of the forest. In the past, for last two decades the State Government of Gujarat had concocted every possible reason to maintain its monopoly on wild Asiatic Lions and the tourism revenue generated by them and of recent Gujarat's legal council had put forward the argument that Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is being used for the introduction of African Cheetah which might take several years to fully settle down and repopulate the area and hence reintroduction of Asiatic Lions should only be done after that, this scared the conservationists that Gujarat will use this pretext to delay the reintroduction of native Asiatic Lions by many more decades using the Cheetah argument. Indian Supereme court has taken note of the arguments put forth by some Indian conservationists that importing African Cheetah for reintroduction in India is misguided as it is against IUCN reintroduction guidelines and no clearance had been sought from India's National Board for Wildlife. The Indian Supereme Court has put the project on hold till further notice asking for clearance from India's National Board for Wildlife, meantime it has fast tracked the case for the re-introduction of Asiatic Lions to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary and is hearing it every Monday.

Senior advocate PS Narasimha, court-appointed adviser and the amicus curiae in the Asiatic lion relocation case in India's Supreme Court, filed an application seeking a stay on the implementation of African cheetah reintroduction project in India. The Indian Supreme court granted the stay and the matter has been scheduled for further hearing in July 2012 after the court returns from vacation. During its hearings, the Bench was informed that India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided to introduce the African cheetah from Namibia into Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the same proposed habitat being developed as the second home for the translocation of Asiatic Lions from Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighboring Indian state of Gujarat which did not want to shift any Asiatic Lions out of the state. Narasimha said the proposal for reintroduction of African Cheetah "has not been either placed before the Standing Committee of India's National Board for Wildlife, nor has there been a considered decision taken in this regard". He stated in an application that "scientific studies show that the African Cheetahs and Asian Cheetahs are completely different, both genetically and also in their characteristics" and the reintroduction of African Cheetah in India was also against the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines on translocation of wildlife species. "In fact, the (IUCN) guidelines categorically warn against the introduction of alien or exotic species. The African Cheetah obviously never existed in India. Therefore, it is not case of intentional movement of an organism into a part of its native range," the application stated. Asiatic Cheetah became extinct in India in the 1950s, In the past, India's last recorded cheetah in the wild was said to have been shot in the Rewa area of Madhya Pradesh in the late 1940s. It was mentioned that the introduction of alien or exotic species is universally shunned by wildlife experts and "in fact countries such as South Africa, Australia are spending huge amount of funds to eradicate and remove exotic wildlife species from wilderness areas or wild habitats". Narasimha also sought a direction of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to produce before the apex court all relevant records and decisions relating to introduction of cheetah. He said the Indian Cheetah in genetic composition is a different animal than the African Cheetah and a different sub species altogether and "therefore one cannot be introduced in place of the other". Conservationists say fewer than 100 of the critically endangered Asiatic Cheetah subspecies remain only in Iran, roaming the central deserts. The vast majority of the 10,000 cheetahs left in the world are in Africa.