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Showing posts from June, 2023

Cheetah 'Shoot' near Kuno village, Grok Suggests Course Correction

  Villagers shot videos and took pictures with their mobile phones as a coalition of cheetahs attempted to kill a calf on the outskirts of a village located at the edge of Kuno National Park . As the cheetahs pounced on the calf, the villagers yelled and pelted stones at the cheetahs as they ran into the forest. Although the cheetah trackers tried to stop the villagers, they were outnumbered. This incident has raised serious questions, especially at a time when the project is considered to be on the right track after the release of 17 cheetahs into the wild. Critics have once again asked: Are the animals safe? Will Kuno's villages face more cases of human-animal conflict? And the biggest question: Can Kuno support 17 cheetahs and provide enough prey to sustain them? Let's analyze this with the help of Grok , a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI. Stones Hurled At Cheetahs But first, the real-life drama on the dusty tracks of Sheopur, where Kuno is locate...

A Tiger Procession in Ranthambhore

  A video of tiger sighting  going viral on social media and shot in   Ranthambhore national park with  200 to 300 tourists following the cat in canters and gypsies stunned the wildlife lovers. Despite the presence of a large tourist crowd the tiger was walking down the dusty pathway of the park – unimpressed and undeterred. A senior wildlife official termed it an “unpleasant sight” and “disgusting to say the least''. For the tourists, the tiger  here seems to have become an object of entertainment while for the tourist operators and the forest department, a revenue generating commodity. The conservation aspect seems to be missing somewhere. Tiger Sandwitched Between Tourist Vehicles    There were at least seven canters and some gypsies full of tourists, behind the tiger -identified as T121- and as many vehicles in front of the cat moving in reverse direction. The tiger was sandwiched between the vehicles near a junction of zone number 4 and 5....

Is Forest Fencing Issue Impacting Cheetah Project ?

  When the Indian authorities are gearing up for the release of more cheetahs in the open forests of Kuno national park , serious differences seem to have emerged between a key African cheetah expert and the Indian officials at the helm of affairs of cheetah introduction programme in India. The difference  of opinion  on the issues of  fenced jungle for cheetahs ,lack of prey  and  man power  emerged after the death of six cheetahs including three  cubs .Though the cheetah action plan already mentions high mortality in the reintroduction of the African species of the cat in India, half a dozen cheetah deaths seems to have rattled the Indo-African team managing the spotted cat in Kuno. Eight months after the release of the cats from Africa by the Prime Minister Modi in September last year, many apprehensions expressed by a number of   experts and biologists over the project seem to have come true. Questions are being raised again- Wh...