Amid Concerns by Experts, Kuno Cheetahs May Soon Be Set Free into the Wild

Bengaluru: India’s African cheetahs and their cubs may soon be free to roam the Kuno wilds.

According to news reports, the Cheetah Project Steering Committee – which advises India’s ambitious African cheetah introduction project in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park – has decided to release the cheetahs and their cubs, currently captive and housed in fenced enclosures, into the wild in Kuno. The release will occur in phases once the monsoon retreats from central India. Currently only one cheetah roams free in Kuno.

However, big cat experts have raised several concerns. The cheetahs have spent almost a year in captivity now, and they may not be fit enough to take to the wild, they told The Wire. One expert pointed out that if the animals have been given anti-parasitic drugs during their time in the fenced enclosures, they may not have been able to build up natural immunity to deal with parasitic infections, the expert added.

Cheetahs and cubs to be released

India’s ambitious Project Cheetah aims to introduce the African cheetah into select grassland habitats in central India. India was previously home to the Asiatic cheetah (a different sub-species), but the last of these animals went extinct in the 1950s. Currently, the only remaining Asiatic cheetahs dwell in Iran and they too are fast dwindling in number.

India kicked off Project Cheetah when it received its first batch of eight cheetahs from Namibia in September 2022. Later, a batch of 12 adults from South Africa joined the Project in February 2023. So at one point, India had 20 adult cheetahs. And till date, two females have also given birth on Indian soil: 17 cubs have been born so far to cheetahs Gamini, Aasha and Jwala.

But it’s not been all hunky-dory. Several deaths have plagued Project Cheetah. Currently, only 13 adults and 12 cubs remain. The last cub to die was a five-month old born to Gamini, on August 5, possibly due to a spinal injury; three cubs died last year due to “heat stress”. 

While the union government has claimed that the deaths of several adults occurred due to “natural causes”, experts had told The Wire that septicaemia – an infection of the blood – caused the deaths of at least three adults. Subsequently, with doubts regarding whether the animals’ radio collars may have played a role in their fatal maggot-ridden wounds on their backs and necks, authorities recaptured all free-roaming cheetahs and kept them under observation in fenced enclosures or bomas. While some individuals were released later, they were all eventually recaptured; currently, only one male – named Pavan – is free-ranging in the wild in Kuno.

Now, all the cheetahs and cubs may join Pavan in the wild. 

According to a news report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the Cheetah Project Steering Committee has decided to release the African cheetahs and their cubs in the wild in Kuno. An anonymous official of the Committee – which performs several functions including advising the National Tiger Conservation Authority (which oversees and implements Project Cheetah) and the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department – told PTI that the release would occur in phases once the monsoon retreats from central India.

However, experts who have studied big cats both in captivity and the wild raised several concerns regarding the release and explained them to The Wire.

Reduced fitness

“Based on global experience and Namibian laws and policies, my understanding is that it is NOT a good idea to release these cheetahs because of their extremely long period of captivity, especially the captive-born cubs,” Ravi Chellam, CEO of Metastring Foundation and Coordinator, Biodiversity Collective, told The Wire.

That’s because cheetahs that spend a long time in captivity often show reduced fitness. Cheetahs may be the fastest land mammals on earth, but they have to exercise their muscles and hunt regularly to maintain efficient hunting rates. However, if the cheetahs have been hunting for themselves in the fenced camps, then they should have maintained sufficient fitness to do well outside under free-ranging conditions, commented a cheetah expert who has worked with both captive and wild cheetahs in Africa. 

“If however they received significant supplementary feeding, then they may have lost fitness and it may be a struggle for them to get back to speed once they are released,” the expert, who did not want to be named fearing backlash from Indian officials, told The Wire.

Many news reports point to the cheetahs being fed butchered meat. In June this year, the Times of India reported that the cheetah trackers – mostly hailing from the Yadav and Gurjar communities from villages near Kuno – employed to track every cheetah individual had gone on strike because they refused to slaughter buffaloes and goats as it was against their religious beliefs to do so.

“These cheetahs have had prolonged exposure to humans and have also been fed slaughtered buffaloes and goats, both of which reduce their fitness to live as free-ranging wild cats,” Chellam pointed out.

Adaptation to build immunity to parasites

However, a greater concern is if the cheetahs were treated with long-acting antiparasitic drugs while in the fenced camps, the African cheetah expert told The Wire. If this has occurred, then the cheetahs may not have had the opportunity to develop good immunity against parasites in the Kuno area, the expert told The Wire. 

“This may create some challenges once they are released and more so next year when the monsoon season starts again. Besides the winter coat issue, the high number of new parasites probably contributed to the mortalities [deaths] last year,” the expert said. “But if the animals have been given enough exposure to parasites during this current rain season, they should have developed a good immunity to prevent future problems.”

S.P Yadav, Additional Director General of Forests at the Environment Ministry, had said that one of the major challenges that authorities faced in the first year was the “unexpected development” of winter coats in some cheetahs during the Indian summer and monsoon, in anticipation of the African winter (June to September). 

“Will believe it when it happens”

However, authorities have announced the release of cheetahs into the wild several times before — and it has not yet materialized.

There have only been several “promises, assurances and more announcements”, Chellam told The Wire. 

“In August 2023, we were told that the captured cheetahs would be released by October/November 2023. Some were released in December 2023 but almost all of the released cats were recaptured within days/weeks. Now we are told that once the monsoon withdraws fully the cats would be released. I will believe it when it happens,” he told The Wire.