(New Delhi) India announced on Wednesday that it would reintroduce the cheetah, which has disappeared there for more than 70 years, to its territory, thanks to an agreement with Namibia which will deliver a first group of eight to it next month. felines.
Posted at 6:51 a.m.
India has been working on this project since 2020, when the country’s Supreme Court authorized the introduction of African cheetahs on an experimental basis in a “carefully chosen location”.
The Asian cheetah has been officially declared extinct in India since 1952. The agreement signed on Wednesday in New Delhi will allow African cheetahs to come to a national park in the state of Madhya Pradesh (center) as part of the 75e India’s Independence Day, August 15.
“Completing 75 glorious years of independence by restoring the world’s fastest land species, the cheetah, to India will revive the ecological dynamics of the landscape,” India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted.
“The reintroduction of the cheetah will also significantly improve the livelihoods of local communities through long-term ecotourism prospects,” he said.
The cheetah is the only large carnivore to become extinct in India, mainly due to hunting and loss of its natural habitat. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is generally considered to have killed the last three cheetahs in the country in the late 1940s.
Kuno-Palpur National Park was chosen as a new home for cheetahs due to the abundance of prey and grassland.
“The main objective of the reintroduction project is to establish a viable population of cheetahs in India, and to enable it to play its functional role as a predator at the top of the food pyramid,” explained the Ministry of Environment in a statement. communicated.
India also hopes to strike a deal with South Africa to bring in more cheetahs from that country.