India is embarking on an ambitious ecological plan: to reintroduce cheetahs, which have disappeared in the country for more than 70 years. Eight of these felines arrive, Saturday, September 17, from Namibia, where they will be kept in confined spaces for a while, before being gradually released into a protected reserve in the center of the country. A politicized event, because the government chose to organize it for Narendra Modi’s birthday.
With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sebastien Farcis
The Prime Minister himself will open the cage of the eight African cheetahs who have arrived from Namibia to begin their long acclimatization to India. After their quarantine, they will be kept in a large enclosure, then, if all goes well, will be released in the Kuno reserve, in the center of the country.
India was once home to Asiatic cheetahs but the species was declared extinct there in 1952. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is said to have killed the last three specimens in the late 1940s. Cheetah extinction in India is mainly attributed to hunters but also to the loss of its habitat, recalls AFP.
The five females and three males traveled from a wildlife park north of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, on a chartered Boeing 747 dubbed “Cat plane”, for an 11-minute flight. hours.
Reviews
The principle of this reintroduction is laudable, but its implementation seems flawed, explains Ravi Chellam, wildlife biologist and director of the Biodiversity Collaborative center. ” Cheetahs need a lot of space to live, with a low density of animals, he explains. The authorities hope to have 21 cheetahs there in 15 years, but the park they have chosen is too small to accommodate so many. And even if it works, it wouldn’t be sustainable, because for a population of cheetahs to take hold, you need at least 50 adults. So this reintroduction is poorly conducted. »
This is the second year in a row that the government has organized a big event for Narendra Modi’s birthday, a sign of the growing personalization of power. Last year, the Indians were invited to be vaccinated massively against the Covid-19 in his honour. This year, the Prime Minister is “offering” India the return of this formidable feline.