India plans to import 20 more Cheetahs, 2 African elephants by March

New Delhi: India is in discussions with Kenya, Botswana and Tanzania to import 20 more cheetahs and two female elephants by March, two government officials said.

Ten African cheetahs, shipped as an experiment, have died in India since 2022. The elephants will be brought as companions to two African male elephants.

“We are trying to get 20 sub-adult cheetahs from Kenya. All the necessary approvals have been given, and we are in the process of making the arrangements like arranging funds and ensuring accommodation. Once these things are taken care of, we expect to bring them to India by March,” one of the officials said.

“The cheetahs may be accommodated at the Gandhinagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh,” the official added.

The estimated cost for the first five years of Project Cheetah is ₹91.65 crore. From 2021-22 to January 2024, ₹44.14 crore was spent on the project.

As part of the first-ever intercontinental translocation of the big cats, 20 cheetahs have been brought to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh so far — eight from Namibia in September 2022 and 12 from South Africa in February 2023.

Since then, eight adult cheetahs — three females and five males — have died.

As many as 17 cubs were born in India, with 12 surviving, bringing the total number of cheetahs, including the cubs, in Kuno to 24. All are in enclosures.

‘Misplaced Priority’ 

Debadityo Sinha, a senior fellow and lead at the climate & ecosystems team of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said, “It is a misplaced priority because we already have so many species which are on the verge of extinction. The government said that it wants to revive the grassland ecosystem. What about the species which are already extinct locally?”

“Cheetahs need a large area. Now you cannot say I am protecting grassland by confining cheetahs to some enclosure in Kuno. The lion also needs a second home. Wolves, hyenas, and the four-horned antelope, chausingha, grassland species, among others also need conservation. Why you are not focusing on the species which are already threatened in India?”

The government official  cited above said, “As far as elephants are concerned, Tanzania has given consent after Zimbabwe and Botswana. We have asked Tanzania for one female elephant, and in total, we will get two females. They will be accommodated in zoos in Delhi and Mysore. An Indian delegation is scheduled to go to these countries by the second week of January to finalize it.”

“The process is that they will identify the individual and then they’ll send us the import permit. It will take a minimum of two or three months to get the elephants,” the official disclosed.

The intent behind getting two female elephants to India is to provide companionship to two male elephants in the respective zoos after the African elephant Shankar at the Delhi Zoo was chained to prevent it from harming itself and visitors because it was in ‘musth’ (a biological state in male elephants marked by increased aggression) and had broken a wall. This raised concerns over its welfare.

Shankar, a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe, arrived in Delhi in 1998 with Vimbai, a female African elephant. Vimbai died in 2001, and Shankar was left all alone.

Queries sent to the secretary and the spokesperson of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change remained unanswered at press time.