Cheetan Reintroduction

Why in the News?

Recently, eight cheetahs were relocated from Namibia in Africa to India’s Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya PradesImage Source: Indian Express

Key Points:

• The name cheetah is believed to have originated from Sanskrit word Chitrak, which means ‘the spotted one’. 

• In India, the native cheetah species was the Asiatic cheetah. 

• It was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952.  

• Currently, only Iran has Asiatic cheetahs in the wild.

• Majority of the Cheetah around the world are African cheetahs.

• 7 big cats of the world:  1) tiger, 2) lion, 3) leopard and 4) snow leopard 5) Cheetah 6) Jaguar 7) Cougar. 

  • Five of them – Tiger, Lion, Leopard, snow leopard and Cheetah are now found in India.

The benefit of translocation of Cheetah:

• Act as a flagship species to revive grassland forests and their biome and habitat.

• Global conservation, in case the African cheetah population is wiped out by some pandemic. 

Causes of extinction of cheetahs in India: 

• Its reduced levels of genetic heterogeneity due to a historical genetic bottleneck resulting in low fertility and high infant mortality in the wild.

• Its inability to breed in captivity.

• Sport hunting and bounty killings.