New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh forest department has denied a request for information on the management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India, citing national security and foreign relations concerns, news agency PTI reported.
Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey had filed a Right to Information (RTI) request seeking correspondence records on Project Cheetah in Kuno and Mandsaur. However, the department refused to disclose the information, invoking Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
This section allows a public authority to withhold information if its disclosure would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, or the security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests of the State, or relations with a foreign country, or lead to the incitement of an offence.
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This is the first time information on Project Cheetah has been denied under the RTI Act since its launch in 2022. Dubey has been disclosing irregularities in big cat conservation since 2013 but has never received a response citing national security concerns. The department had previously revealed that the first cub born in India had a fractured leg.
“I have been disclosing irregularities in the conservation of big cats since 2013, but this is the first time I received a reply stating that disclosure of information about cheetahs will affect national security or relations with foreign countries,” Dubey was quoted as saying by PTI.
In response to a prior RTI request filed by Dubey regarding the health of India’s first cheetah cub, the department disclosed that the cub had suffered a fractured right leg on November 28, the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, the government plans to introduce cheetahs into a fenced area in the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary by the end of the year, focusing on breeding. A proposal for a cheetah conservation breeding centre in Gujarat’s Banni grasslands was cleared by the Central Zoo Authority in February. The long-term goal is to establish a metapopulation of cheetahs in the Kuno-Gandhisagar landscape.
The cheetah conservation project has faced criticism following animal deaths. On June 4, park authorities found a cheetah cub born on Indian soil dead in its enclosure in Kuno. The cub became the 11th cheetah to die in Kuno, and the fourth cub to die in the National Park. Three cubs (born in the first ever cheetah litter in India) had died in May last year due to “heat stress”, as per official records, at less than two months of age.
At present, Kuno is home to 26 cheetahs and 13 cubs, as part of Project Cheetah, the second Modi government’s ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme.
