CHEETAH RELOCATION

Why in News? : India will be soon getting cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia into the wild at Kuno Palpur in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh.

Features of this project : It will initiate India’s ambitious plan of transcontinental relocation of cheetahs.The country’s last spotted cheetah died in Chhattisgarh in 1947 and it was declared extinct in the country in 1952. Wildlife Institute of India prepared a cheetah reintroduction project.

Speciality of this animal : one of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors that can be traced back more than five million years to the Miocene era. The cheetah is also the world’s fastest land mammal that lives in Africa and Asia.

Asiatic Cheetah : Scientific Name: Acinonyx Jubatus

Characteristic: Slightly smaller than the African Cheetahs.

They have pale yellowish fawn coloured skin with more fur under their body, specifically on the belly.Inserting image...

Distribution: Found only in Iran with less than 100 individuals left.

Protection:

IUCN Red List: critically endangered.
 

Reasons for extinction : Human-wildlife conflict, loss of habitat and loss of prey, and illegal trafficking.Deforestation and agriculture eventually led to less forest land and Cheetah habitat.The advent of climate change and growing human populations have only made these problems worse.

Conservation Efforts : Wildlife Institute of India had prepared a Rs 260-crore cheetah Re-introduction project seven years ago. This could be the world’s first inter-continental cheetah translocation project.

MoEFCC had in the 19^th meeting, NTCA released an “Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India”.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has decided to bring 50 African Cheetah from Namibia within the next 5 years.

What is NTCA? : A statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation.