Seven decades after cheetahs died out in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released eight cats that were transported from Namibia to their new home.
ByThis handout photograph provided by the Press Information Bureau shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi watching a cheetah at an enclosure at Kuno National Park.Eight big cats from Namibia made the long trek Saturday in a chartered cargo flight to the northern Indian city of Gwalior, part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce cheetahs to the South Asian country.
"When the cheetah will run again ... grasslands will be restored, biodiversity will increase and eco-tourism will get a boost," said Modi. For example, a tiger population boom in India has led to more conflict with people sharing the same space. With cheetahs, there are questions about how their presence would affect other carnivores like striped hyenas, or even prey like birds.The initial eight cheetahs from Namibia will be quarantined at a facility in the national park and monitored for a month to make sure they're not carrying pests.
There is only one village with a few hundred families still residing on the fringes of the park. Indian officials said they'd be moved soon, and any livestock loss due to cheetahs will be compensated. The project is estimated to cost $11.5 million over five years, including $6.3 million that will be paid for by state-owned Indian Oil.
Many obstacles remain, including the presence of other predators in India like leopards that may compete with cheetahs, said conservation geneticist Pamela Burger of University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.
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