The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The third batch of cheetahs were to arrive in India in February this year from South Africa. However, this may now be delayed due to pending quarterly reports that are to be provided by India on the cheetah introduction programme, and also because India did not take permission from Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) for the translocation, according to a report by The Times of India.
Quarterly progress reports were one of the conditions specified in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Africa for bringing African cheetahs as part of the Project Cheetah, the country’s ambitious cheetah introduction programme, that is currently ongoing at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
As per the ToI report, the translocation of more cheetahs from South Africa is also paused because permission from CITES, an international agreement between governments that aims to regulate the trade and movement of endangered species across the globe, is still pending.
Also read: Two Years On, How Is India’s Project Cheetah Faring?
Under CITES, many endangered species are not permitted to be transported across international boundaries unless they have specific permits for this, and the African cheetah is one such species. It is listed under Appendix I of CITES, which is a category under which the most-endangered species are listed.
The authorities had overlooked the need for CITES permission during the planning stages of the project, ToI reported.
Under the MoU and project, South Africa had sent across 12 African cheetahs in February 2023. By then, eight cheetahs had already arrived in India from Namibia in September 2022.