'Cheetah project achieved unbelievable milestones'

India completed one year of its Cheetah reintroduction project on September 17. The decision to “reintroduce” the locally extinct cheetah had created excitement. Six of the 20 cheetahs, translocated from Namibia and South Africa to Kuno died due to various reasons, and the project drew lot of criticism from wildlife experts. S P Yadav, Member Secretary of The National Tiger Conservation Authority and Head of the Cheetah Project, discussed with Jitendra Choubey on the journey of completing one year and challenges ahead.

- Jitendra Choubey

The India cheetah project has completed one year. What is its current status? 

One must realise that this marks the first intercontinental wild-to-wild translocation of any big carnivores. Encouragingly, the cheetahs are adapting rapidly, establishing their own home ranges, and no unnatural deaths have been reported thus far.

All cheetahs, including captive-reared cheetahs from Namibia, are adapting well. They have begun hunting in the wild, targeting not only their favorite prey, the Cheetal, but also other species such as the four-horned antelope.

Even more impressively, the cheetahs have established their ranges. Two of them ventured out of the forest to explore areas up to Sheopur National Park and the Uttar Pradesh borders, covering a range of approximately 200