It must ensure a prey base for the animal. The sanctuary’s officials need to be equipped to monitor the big cat’s health
Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh is set to be the second home for cheetahs in India. An assessment of the carrying capacity of Kuno National Park has revealed that the animal’s current habitat in the country has exceeded its carrying capacity. The overabundance of cheetahs in the protected area (PA), also in Madhya Pradesh, has led to a 25 per cent loss in the big cat’s main prey base — the chital. The animals from Africa, and their offspring, are not the only predators in the national park. Kuno’s leopards compete with the cheetahs for herbivores.
In an open savannah, the African animals can outrun the leopards, but the latter seems to have made the most of its home advantage. The forest department believes that translocating surplus cheetahs to Gandhi Sagar could restore Kuno’s ecological equilibrium. However, the two feline predators will continue to compete for prey — now in two PAs. Project Cheetah will have to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated and translocation is not band aid.
At Gandhi Sagar, the cheetahs will initially be housed in a 64 sq km enclosure. The first challenge will be to remove leopards from this area. Project Cheetah’s long-term plan, to develop a longer stretch of the 3,600 km sanctuary as habitat for the feline, will pose greater challenges. An insufficient prey base reportedly continues to be an issue at the sanctuary in Western MP. A 2021 study revealed that, despite the reasonably good health of the sanctuary, ungulate densities are extremely low.
Apart from leopards, the sanctuary has other co-predators including sloth bears, striped hyenas, gray wolves, golden jackals, jungle cats, Indian foxes, and marsh crocodiles. The PA authorities will also be challenged in monitoring the health of a species that went extinct in the country more than seven decades ago. Last year, the Supreme Court had admonished the government after a string of fatalities in Kuno. Gandhi Sagar’s authorities would do well to learn from Project Cheetah’s experiences — and setbacks — in the past two years.
Project Cheetah’s Steering Committee is reportedly considering a proposal for introducing a larger cat in the Kuno mix to reduce leopard activities. This could, on paper, reduce the pressure on the National Park. However, this could also push leopards out of the park, increasing chances of human-animal conflict. Project Cheetah has spurred conversations on longstanding problems of Indian conservation. It’s up to policymakers to seize the moment.