Prime Minister Narendra Modi reintroduced Cheetahs in India 70 years after they were reported extinct. Cheetahs are the only animals in the country that have gone extinct since independence from colonial rule.
This is also the first time a large carnivore has been moved from one continent to another and reintroduced to the wild. PM Modi on Saturday, his 72nd birthday, released the cheetahs into the park. The big cats will spend the first few months in a six-square-kilometre enclosure.
“Today the cheetah has returned to the soil of India,” Modi said in a video address, adding “the nature-loving consciousness of India has also awakened with full force. We must not allow our efforts to fail.”
An unforgettable day in Madhya Pradesh! pic.twitter.com/ius7WxTlDN
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 17, 2022
Meanwhile, negotiations are underway to bring in 12 more cheetahs from South Africa next month.
Here’s how global media organisations covered the arrival of the eight big cats, five females and three males, in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Palpur National Park.
WASHINGTON POST ON CHALLENGES OF GROWING CHEETAH POPULATION
A Washington Post article described challenges India may face in re-growing the cheetah population. The report, titled, ‘Cheetahs return to India after going extinct there over 70 years ago’, stated that an Indian conservationist said that the project’s scientific base was “weak” and that conservation claims were “unrealistic.”
The report also referenced a South African cheetah expert who works to increase the cheetah population. According to him, the big cats should be inside fenced-in areas and human movement must be prevented in the area.
It also referred to the measures taken by the national park officials to protect the cheetahs and keep out poachers.
REUTERS ON INDIA’S EFFORTS TO BRING CHEETAHS BACK
News organisation Reuters, in a report titled, ‘Modi introduces imported cheetahs to India on his birthday,’ elaborated on India’s efforts since 2010 to bring Cheetahs back to the country.
It threw light on the Project Cheetah, begun in 2009 under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government to “bolster India’s environmental reputation.” It further elaborated on the steps taken by the government to “set the Cheetahs up for success.”
AL JAZEERA’S PROS & CONS TAKE
News agency Al Jazeera, in its report titled, ‘India welcomes back cheetahs, 70 years after local extinction’, spoke about the challenges of reintroducing cheetahs in India and the obstacles to growing the indigenous cheetah population.
The article also elaborated on the habitat loss and hunting back in the 1950s that led to the big cats disappearing from India. It further referenced Indian scientists’ statements on what kinds of challenges the Indian habitat could pose to the cheetahs.
However, other conservation experts opined that ‘the promise of restoring cheetahs to India is worth the challenges.’
BBC ON INDIA’S HISTORY WITH CHEETAHS
A report on the big cat’s reintroduction to India by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) spoke about the history of cheetahs in India and the country’s efforts to bring them back.
An article titled, ‘Modi: India PM reintroduces extinct cheetahs on birthday’, brought to light how and why the big cats went extinct from India and the efforts after that to reintroduce them. The article also traces the status of cheetahs in India near the end of the Mughal empire.