BHOPAL: The conservation experience in the Kuno National Park of Madhya Pradesh has led the authorities concerned to foray into the ‘most challenging phase’ of ‘Project Cheetah’ by releasing two translocated cheetahs into an unknown tiger territory, the Durgavati reserve, in the state.
With this, the ‘Project Cheetah’ has evolved from reintroduction to building national capacity for cheetah conservation, a senior forest officer associated with the project told this newspaper on Sunday.
Sharing the incidents of the chance encounters between cheetah and tigers in the Kuno landscape, the forest officer recounted how some cheetahs had entered tiger territory when they strayed into Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan and Madhav Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and successfully dodged their predators on these occasions.
“Even in the Kuno National Park, the cheetahs have the experience of coming close to the leopards and then retreating safely. Such encounters have almost become day-to-day affairs in Kuno”, Director, Project Cheetah, Uttam Kumar Sharma told this newspaper.
There are over 150 leopards in the Kuno National Park.
Tiger, leopard, wolve are the key predators of cheetah in Indian forest landscapes.
“The experience gained from the encounters between cheetahs and tigers in the Kuno landscape have given us confidence that cheetahs are capable of navigating and managing themselves in a tiger landscape”, Mr. Sharma said.
The Project Cheetah involved the introduction of African cheetahs in India.
According to South African metapopulation expert, Susan Yanneti, there is no cheetah-tiger coexistence in Africa because tigers are native to India, not Africa.
Hence, the establishment of the VDTR as the third cheetah site is considered an important milestone for the Project Cheetah, experts said.
The Project Cheetah was launched with the release of 20 translocated African cheetahs in the Kuno National Park in two phases in a gap of six months four years ago.
The second cheetah site was established in the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh with the release of four cheetahs- two females and two males- a year and half ago.
On October seven, two cheetahs- one female and one male- were shifted to the VDTR, the third cheetah site, from the Kuno National Park.
Every cheetah site landscape is different, Mr. Sharma said while explaining the challenges of introducing cheetahs in a new site.
Each landscape has its own habitat, prey base, terrain, predators, livestock interface, human settlements, roads, climate and ecological conditions.
“The VDTR, in particular, provides an opportunity to understand cheetah management in a new Central Indian landscape shaped by the presence of tigers and wolves. With more than 20 tigers, it will be the first site where cheetahs are being established in a landscape with such a significant tiger population”, he said.
The cheetah population has now grown to 60, including 41 born on Indian soil.
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