How cheetahs replaced lions in park plans

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: The recent news of two relocated cheetahs killing a spotted deer in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh was received with much euphoria. But much that has gone into domestic conservation efforts during all these years has remained unnoticed.

Wildlife biologists and ecologists have been trying to warn us that the KNP was originally supposed to be a second home to endangered Asiatic Lions (Panthera leo leo) of Gir that number around 700. In fact, the park was being prepared to absorb the lions since 1995.

The reasoning behind this was that the Asiatic lions were based in a single location, which put them at greater risk of extinction due to disease, natural disasters and the like. The translocation of the cheetahs to KNP effectively scuttles the relocation of Asiatic lions.

Conservationists are left with no other option now since they haven’t been able to find another appropriate location for a second population of free ranging lions.

19th century: Firearms nearly wipe them out

One might ask as to what led to this situation? The Asiatic lions were once plentiful and lived across a large geographical space in south Asia, from Sindh in present day Pakistan in the west to Bihar in the east.

However, 19th century colonial India proved to be a time of existential crisis for the Asiatic lions because they were hunted to near extinction with the help of firearms. Some records state that they were reduced to 12 individuals in 1880.

Thanks to conservation efforts, their numbers rose to a few hundred but wild Asiatic lions became restricted to the forests of Gir that cover three districts of Gujarat i.e., Junagadh, Somanath and Amreli. Even now, most lions live outside the protected area because of a scarcity of space.

1995: Experts, govts settle on location

Fast forward to 1993, conservationists including Bengaluru-based veteran wildlife biologist Ravi Chellam tried to find a second home to establish multiple free-ranging populations of Asiatic lions to ensure better conservation of the endangered animals.

In Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, they found the ideal place in Kuno, which is named after an eponymous river which is a tributary of Chambal. “I did the groundwork and recommended to the government on January 15, 1995,” Chellam recalls.

He added that high-ranking bureaucrats from the Centre, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and a fellow expert all agreed on the plan to relocate some Asiatic lions to Kuno. “The government of India, from April of 1995, has been funding and preparing Kuno to play host to the lions,” he added.

2013: SC orders relocation

However, the translocation of the big cats did not take place in a timely manner, he said. So, in the mid-2000s, a PIL was filed in the apex court in this regard. After protracted legal proceedings, a court ordered the translocation of the lions from Gir to Kuno on April 15, 2013 within six months.

Yet nothing moved. Chellam says 24 villages were cleared and 1,543 families were moved out and prey base of Kuno was expanded thereafter, but Gujarat Government came up with excuses, one after another.

Meanwhile, a contempt petition in a court in this regard was dismissed following Government assurance that action will be taken. The wildlife biologist opines that setting up multiple free-ranging population for an endangered species is the best assurance rather than in a single setting. Wildfires or outbreak of diseases can eliminate the entire population.

2018: Epidemic kills 36 big cats in Gir

Chellam informs that outbreak of canine distempervirus and babesiosis devoured nearly a thousand lions out of the 3,000 in the early 1990s in the Serengati-Masai Mara preserve, the largest of the sanctuaries for lions. “We don’t have a 1,000 lions,” he said, adding that the Gujarat State government dismissed the danger by saying that such a thing would only happen in Africa.

However, the claim proved to be unscientific. He points out that 36 lions perished in an outbreak of disease in 2018, as per the official records. Unofficial count put the number higher. “Not only did lions die, lions were captured for treatment and vaccination and so on and so forth and they continued to be in captivity,” Chellam added.

In May 11, 2020, the then union environment minister Prakash Javadekar in response to a question had informed the Rajya Sabha that 91 lions had died in Gir in less than five months, the highest mortality rate in three years back then. The minister accepted that “unnatural causes” might have played a part.

2022: Enter 8 African cheetahs

Incredibly, the a