BHOPAL: The third batch of 18 cheetahs, scheduled to be relocated from South Africa to Madhya Pradesh in Feb 2025, may take more time. Sources indicate that South Africa is awaiting quarterly progress reports on Project Cheetah, which are supposed to be sent by India’s ministry of environment, forest, and climate change as part of the MoU signed between the two countries.
An officer associated with the project, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the next batch would come once SA govt receives quarterly reports. The MoU, signed Jan 17, 2022, specifies that India’s govt must submit quarterly progress reports on the cheetahs translocated to India from South Africa.
The project is also stalled due to pending import permission from Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). These cheetahs are expected to be relocated to Kuno National Park in Sheopur and Gandhi Sagar in Mandsaur, but the delay in CITES approval is preventing the next phase of the reintroduction effort. Cheetahs, which were last found in India in the 1950s, are included in CITES Appendix I, which heavily regulates their trade to protect them from illegal international trade and over-exploitation.
Once import permission by CITES is granted, South African authorities will need to secure export permission from the body before the translocation can proceed. Authorities have reportedly overlooked the need for CITES consent during the planning stages of the project, further complicating the process.
Cheetahs are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, with fewer than 7,000 individuals remaining in the wild, primarily in the savannahs of Africa. While southern Africa is considered the species’ stronghold, populations in north and west Africa are critically endangered. In Iran, a small population of Asiatic cheetahs also faces the threat of extinction.
In 2019, SC approved the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)’s proposal to reintroduce African cheetahs to India’s national parks, with Kuno National Park in MP selected as the relocation site. The Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia had pledged to donate cheetahs for the project, with the only funding required being for transportation costs.
