Cheetah reintroduction is Indian wildlife’s demonetization moment

A recent letter by scientists in favour of cheetah reintroduction emphasizes how the exercise was always an experiment, contrary to what the government has been telling us.

How many cheetahs can a forest hold? That is the question being asked as 12 more of the felines were released into the Kuno National Park. The eight introduced earlier will soon be ending their quarantine to roam free in the western Madhya Pradesh forest. Worryingly though, there’s still not enough clarity on whether the reintroduction of the cheetahs was a good idea in the first place.

Wildlife scientists and observers have put forward opposing views on a crucial metric: The number of cheetahs that can naturally thrive in a given patch of forest. The government’s Cheetah Action Plan, …

Author

Nihar Gokhale

Nihar Gokhale led the Chaos coverage at The Morning Context. Nihar wrote on the environment, the economy and resource conflicts in India. He has reported from across the country on everything from displacement, pollution and environmental violations to land regulation, corruption and human rights. He was earlier associate editor at Land Conflict Watch, and his work has appeared in Scroll, The Wire, IndiaSpend, The Caravan and Mongabay India.

Editor, Chaos

nihar@mailtmc.com

Delhi