Why Are African Cheetahs Moving To India?

The wild happens to be the home of the big cat and it is here that you can find the magnificent albeit intimidating create loom large and move about freely. Yet, there also happen to be times where there exists a kind of migration of the regal creature, speaking of which one is reminded about a critical movement of the famous African Cheetah, due to move away from its secure and familiar habitat in the nomadic African jungles.

A recent wildlife report that garnered a lot of attention puts the focus on one of the most alluring among all wild animals: the African Cheetahs.

Now just as one witnessed large swathes of movement in India where the last year was concerned right in midst of the pandemic, with respect to the migrant workers moving back (from urban India to the hinterland of the country), the country can now expect an unprecedented movement of the African Cheetahs into India.

Come the end of 2021, and one shall witness scores of African Cheetahs being stationed in India, having moved away from Southern Africa, hitherto their familiar territory. So what’s exactly bound to happen and why is it happening?

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Is there something peculiar associated with this intriguing, soon-to-be ‘India-bound’ African cat?

Well here’s what you need to know.

India is bound to receive the first batch of the African Cheetahs nearly seven decades after the animal was rendered ‘extinct’ in the very country where it once prowled freely. But this is no random Southern Africa to India movement; it’s an ambitious project that has shaped in the last decade or so.

If you were to refresh the memory and recapture the events of March 3, then you’d be reminded of the address by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change wherein he mentioned India’s key objective of bringing the famous Cheetahs back to the country.

India, a country replete with tigers and lions and known for its abundant population of the birds of prey, last romanced the prancing African beast back in the 1940s. Wondering about the precise moment in time?

It was in 1947 when last of the remaining African Cheetahs had been shot. Believe it or not but it was Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya (Chattisgarh), who was responsible for the extinction of the famous wild creature after he’d shot the last of the three wild cats.

And now, over seven decades later, India is due to implement a famous inter-continental transfer of the imposing African cat in an operation that will involve specific teams from Namibia and South Africa to train the Indian Wildlife experts on all matters relevant to the continental shift of the animal.

It’s believed that the teams from Africa will arrive in the country to help train their Indian counterparts across a plethora of activities that will be central to the new settlement and in turn, conservation of the animal, such as- handling, breeding, medical treatment and rehabilitation.

That being said, here’s what an official from the Wildlife Institute of India had to share on the ambitious project:

“India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.”

That being said, what’s key to note at the moment is that it was the Supreme Court that gave a nod to this project earlier this year in January 2020.