Future Tense For Cute Cheetah Cubs of Kuno

 

Kuno National park released two short documentaries with beautiful pictures of cheetah cubs and their mothers.The cute cheetah cubs in the moving pictures  attract eyeballs. Cheetah siblings playing in the lush green grasslands after monsoon in Kuno fascinate all and sundry. For record, in the last 24 months, the same number of cheetahs survived- 12 adult cheetahs of the original 20 airlifted from Africa – Namibia and South Africa- and 12 of the 17 cubs born in Kuno. As the Union ministry of Environment ,Forest  and Climate Change (MoEFC&C) celebrates the “two successful years of the cheetah project in Kuno”, lo and behold, all the cheetahs are still in captivity and none of them are free ranging so far.What  is the future of these cubs . Their future  is  linked with the  future of  the cheetah project. 

Safe in Boma, Cubs Yet to Face Jungle Threats

The documentaries showcase  playful  cheetah cubs in Kuno. The first cheetah cubs  were born in Kuno in March 2023 when a Nambian cheetah Siyaya  and rechristened as  Jwala gave birth to four cubs. But only  one female cub survived, while the other three died from starvation, heat, dehydration among other reasons, according to sources .Now 18 months old and the eldest among the 12 surviving cubs of Kuno, Jwala’s female cub is named as Mukhi.  A South African cheetah named Gamini also gave birth to six cubs in March 2024, a record for a first-time mother. This was the first litter from a cheetah brought from South Africa, and the fourth litter in India. Namibian cheetah Jwala gave birth to four more cubs in January 2024 followed by three cubs from Aasha.  Forest department sources attributed the successful births to the stress-free environment created by the forest officers, veterinarians and field staff. Among them 12 survived, a good survival rate in the controlled environs of  Boma.

Also read: Prolonged Cheetah Captivity in Kuno Delays Next Batch of Cheetah

 The purring of cheetah cubs  is confined within bomas referred to enclosures less than one square km area.  And as the siblings chirp and communicate with their mother, they are growing within the safe environs of bomas , without any fear of leopard, wild dogs, wolf or even a fox.The cubs may be learning the hunting skills from their mothers inside the bomas stocked with spotted deer. These cubs have yet to learn the art of surviving in the open forest where the jungle law of survival prevails. These cubs have yet to face a  leopard, the biggest predator  of Kuno  in the absence of a tiger.There is a very high density of  leopards in Kuno national park. If released in open, will they be able to face the survival of the fittest test ? The officials have yet to finalise a plan to  release the surviving cheetahs  including  the cubs in the open jungle. In fact this is the biggest dilemma faced by the officials  after repeated  cases of cheetahs cross over Kuno and reach  the neighbouring villages where they are caught and  put back in bomas. Another problem was related to cheetah casualties in the open forest of Kuno.  Consequently, all the cheetahs have been inside the enclosures for long . All other  jungles earmarked for cheetah introduction including the Banni grasslands  reserve of Gujarat and Gandhi Sagar sanctuary in  Madhya Pradesh  have fenced  facilities to release these cats. As of now, there is hardly any chance of cheetahs sprinting  the open

Cheetah Action Plan No Where  Near Its Goal 

Beginning September 2022, for the next 5 years, Indian plans to bring 50 cheetahs with a goal to establish a viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the animal to perform its functional role as a top predator and provide space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts ,use the cheetah as a flagship species to restore open forests and savanna systems, which will benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services- the restoration and conservation of the much-neglected Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs), such as scrub forests, grasslands, and savannahs harbouring several endangered species of fauna and flora. 

Also read: Cheetah Cubs  Born in Boma , Do They Have Conservation Value ?

This  would Increase India's ability to sequester carbon through ecosystem restoration activities, India’s official news agency Press Information Bureau (PIB) reported  just before the first African consignment landed Kuno two years ago. Six months later, by the time winters will be over next year in 2025, the project will be completing its 50 % duration but “we don’t seem to be anywhere near any of the goals mentioned in the plan”, says sources in MoEFC&C. Experts  are apprehensive but the government  has yet to respond to these apprehensions.

Shrouded In Secrecy

   

One of the authors of the cheetah action plan and former principal scientist on the Cheetah Project (2009–2023), Yadvendradev V Jhala, has been very critical of the project . Jhala in an article in darknlight.com writes, “The first step towards this goal  (cheetah introduction) entails restoring intact ecosystems. Breeding of cheetahs within fenced enclosures alone, falls short of this noble goal and is a waste of resources if ecosystems are simultaneously not restored to receive free ranging cheetahs. Former  dean of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) , Jhala also wrote  a  critical piece in Hornbill, a periodical brought out by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) , when he said  “ the high- profile conservation projects like Project Cheetah, while benefiting from resource allocations, unfortunately suffer from political and bureaucratic meddling where objectives other than those dictated by science and conservation take precedence.

Also read: Ken Betwa Project : Plan to Massacre Millions of Trees Give Goosebumps 

 Another critic of the project and a prominent  wildlife biologist  and conservation scientist, Ravi Chellam censures the project for its unscientific approach. The  Bengaluru based  CEO of Metastring Foundation and coordinator of the Biodiversity Collaborative in an article in The Hind commented ,  “In fact, right from the start this project has been mired in ad hoc and unscientific decision-making. Ecological restoration and conservation objectives have been subordinated by various other considerations”, He said, “ The scientifically weak cheetah action plan was not the best foundation to launch this project. This initial problem has been compounded by failures in decision-making and field implementation.” Experts  are also critical of the project as it is shrouded in confidentiality. There is so much secrecy   that the documentaries released  to mark the two years of the project did not give credit to the  people who shot the video. Sources in Delhi claimed, “  we did not want to reveal who all have visited the park to  perform the photography and  shoot the film”.  There was so much secrecy that The Madhya Pradesh forest department  earlier this year denied an RTI request for information on cheetah management, citing national security concerns under Section 8(1)(a). It refused to provide information under the Right to Information Act on management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India. In response to a request filed by Bhopal based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, the department cited Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act, which allows a public authority to withhold information if its disclosure would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests of the State, relations with a foreign State, or lead to the incitement of an offence.

By: Deshdeep Saxena

Cover Image and Other Pictures Courtsey Kuno Nationa Park