Cheetah to roam the Indian hinterland again
September 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Interesting News
India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said the country had researched a project to import breeding pairs of cheetah from Nambia, and possibly other African counties.
“The cheetah is the only animal to have been declared extinct in India in the last 1,000 years,” he said. “We have to get them from abroad to repopulate the species here.”
The Asiatic cheetah was once prominent in India but the last documented sighting was 1947 when the Maharaja of Surguja killed three cats on a hunting trip.
Iran is the only home of the Asiatic cheetah but efforts to buy pairs from there have fallen flat. There are only 100 cheetah in Iran.
“Iran has refused to give cheetah that has become extinct in India ,” Mr Ramesh said.”Efforts will be made to secure cheetah either from Kenya, South Africa or Namibia,
However some conservationists have criticised the government. “I don’t think it’s a wise idea,” said R. N. Mehrotra, the chief wildlife warden of Rajasthan.
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