India has been fully intent on reintroducing cheetahs back into its wild, despite it being a widely contentious issue. Recently, India rejected three cheetahs from Namibia because the trio was bred in captivity.
Read: South African cheetahs to be relocated to the heart of India
Namibia has agreed to translocate eight cheetahs to India, following an agreement between the two countries on wildlife conservation and sustainable biodiversity utilisation.
India’s government is fully intent on reintroducing cheetahs, which went extinct in 1952, to India’s Kuno National Park in the centre of the country.
Indian authorities are reportedly concerned that the three captive-bred cheetahs will be unable to hunt – fearing that the cheetahs could be timid in an environment teeming with leopards.
Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, stated that three of the eight cheetahs in quarantine were ‘unable to catch prey’.
Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda, commented that ‘We deny such allegations and claims given by India.’
‘The cheetahs are not captive animals. They were captured when they were young and were exposed to hunting,’ Muyunda said.
‘It is so unfortunate that the three were rejected, but India has an interest in the five others. We will not give them cheetahs anymore to replace the three rejected ones, as we do not want to compromise on our cheetah population,’ Muyunda said
India signed a memorandum with South Africa and Namibia to establish a viable metapopulation in India that will allow it to perform its functional role as a top predator, seven decades after it went regionally extinct.
Picture: Elise Kirsten/ Getaway Gallery
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