Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary - Reintroduction of Cheetah

Reintroduction of Cheetah

Currently, wildlife experts have shortlisted three regions which have the potential to support cheetah populations. The Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary both in Madhya Pradesh and the Shahgarh bulge landscape in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan have been declared potentially suitable for the reintroduction of the cheetah. The Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has the potential to hold populations of all four of India's big cats the tiger, the leopard, the Asiatic lion as well as the cheetah, all four of which have coexisted in the same habitats historically before they were wiped out due to over hunting and habitat destruction. Since the Shahgarh Landscape is fenced along the Indo-Pak border region, the addition of more fencing will ensure adequate protection for the cheetah population. The Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary (1197km2) is part of a much larger forested landscape (5500km2 ) which can host the cheetah as well.

Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary is a part of the Sheopur-Shivprti forested landscape, which had the second largest area (6,800 km2) amongst the surveyed sites for reintroduction of Cheetah. This site was rated high on the priority list for considering because a lot of restorative investment has already been made here for introducing the Asiatic lions. The Protected Area was estimated to have a current carrying capacity to sustain 27 cheetah, which could be enhanced to over 32 individuals by addition of some more forested areas (120 km2) to the Kuno Sanctuary and managing the surrounding 3,000 km2 establishes itself within the Sanctuary, dispersers would not preclude the reintroduction of the Asiatic lion once the cheetah population is established and the two introductions would complement each other. Kuno offers the prospect of all the four large forest cats/felids of India to coexist as they historically did in the past.

Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary has been shortlisted by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) as one of the last remaining habitats of the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in India and is proposed as one of the sites for the reintroduction of the species in India. Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) that used to occur here are now locally extinct in India and elsewhere, except a very small critically endangered and fragmented population of last few, estimated to be below 100, thought to be surviving only in the central desert of Iran. Thus Cheetah experts from around the world have advised India to import and introduce the Cheetah from Africa as genetically it is identical to the ones found is Asia, as latest genetic studies have revealed that the Asian population had separated from the African relatively recently only 5000 years ago which is not enough for a subspecies level differentiation.