Indian Cheetah

[Sakobav]

Maybe some one can enlighten us on how best India can clone or bring back Indian cheetah. Link to articles wherein attempts will be made to close Asiatic Indian Cheetah from Iranians one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/974858.stm

An add with Cheetah hunting in India. Can anyone render a guess who this raja is in the ad. Also I read somewhere last known Cheetah hunting at least recorded was by some raja in Orissa.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1957-Cheetah-huntin ... otohosting

[Vikram]

Navdeep,

My former roomy is presently doing his Post-Doctoral research in CCMB,HYD where this project is being pursued.Shall ask him to give us some info in this. But, his field is Micro-Biology. Apart from Cheetah, they are also trying to clone all the other endangered and some of the extinct creatures.Ambitious?Yes.But, why not.


Best- Vikram

[Sakobav]

Vikram

That would be nice in my opinion its a very ambitious project, wish them success and yes you are right they are also looking at Asiatic Lion and other endangered species.

Navdeep

[Sakobav]

India plans to bring back the cheetah, nearly half a century after it became extinct in the country. The BBC's Soutik Biswas considers whether it is a good idea.

Will the world's fastest land animal make a comeback in India, nearly half a century after it became extinct in the country?

A serious initiative is afoot to bring the cheetah back to India and make it, as many wildlife experts say, the "flagship species" of the country's grasslands, which do not have a single prominent animal now.

A similar effort in the 1970s - India was then talking to Iran, which had around 300 cheetahs at that time - flopped after the Shah of Iran was deposed and the negotiations never progressed.

Strong case'

A recent meeting of wildlife officials, cheetah experts and conservationists from all over the world discussed the "reintroduction" of the spotted cat and agreed that the case for its return to India was strong.

Seven sites - national parks, sanctuaries and other open areas - in the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have been shortlisted as potential homes for the cheetah.

These sites will now be surveyed extensively to find out the state of the habitat, the number of prey and prospects of man-animal conflict to finally determine whether they can accommodate the cheetah.

Asiatic cheetah in Iran
The last Asiatic cheetah are found in Iran

If one or more sites are found to have favourable habitat and prey for the cheetah, India will then possibly have to import the cat from Africa, because the numbers of the Asiatic cheetah which are available only in Iran have dwindled to under 100.

The vast majority of the 10,000 cheetahs left in the world are in Africa.

Genetic scientists like the US-based Stephen O'Brien say that the genetic similarities between the Iranian and African cheetah is "very close", so there should be no problems bringing the latter to India.

Most of the experts agreed that wild cheetahs or the progeny of wild cheetahs in captivity should be brought to India, quarantined for a while, and released in the selected habitats.

Dr Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, says reintroducing the cheetah "will not be easy - but it is doable".

"We have the techniques and knowledge to do it. The cheetah living in India again might be a good thing. Its extinction is fairly recent and it is a top predator which could help by becoming an icon, help bring back the health of grassland ecosystems," she say

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8262862.stm

[Sakobav]

Another article and there is picture of some Raja of Surguja who may be shot the last 3 cheetahs of India(sic)

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262019


Spotted: Lean Cat Rerun
Hunted out from Indian grasslands, the cheetah may tear across the landscape again
Shruti Ravindran
Other Big Cats In India

Tigers

* As of 2008 we have 1,411 tigers, from 15,000 20 years ago
* Threats: Habitat degradation due to unchecked development—highways, mines, hydel projects; human-animal conflicts; poaching of tiger and its prey-base
* Result: Average 30 tigers killed per year, and an alarming toll in 2009: 68 killed in 9 months

Lions

* India currently has 359 lions, all of them in the Gir area, Gujarat
* Threats: Flooding; human-animal conflicts; being maimed by wells, electric fences

Leopard

* No reliable data; a highly criticised pugmark census claimed there were 9,844 in 2001
* Threats: Habitat loss/ fragmentation; loss of wild prey; human persecution; hunting for trade
* 161 leopards killed in 2008, 113 killed in the first 9 months of 2009

Snow Leopard

* India has 400-700 snow leopards over 5 Himalayan states
* Threats: Prey depletion; habitat overuse and fragmentation by road-building; poaching

***

Should The Cheetah Be Brought Back From Extinction?

For

* Bringing the cheetah back will be just redemption,considering humans killed them off
* It’s also a way to protect other threatened species in our grasslands, like the Great Bustard
* It could be the flagship species for its habitat, like the snow leopard in the trans-Himalayas, the tiger in the forests
* Namibia’s 2,500 African cheetahs are genetically identical to our Asiatic
cheetahs and their favourite prey—kudu, springbok—resemble our blackbuck, chinkara

Against

* Are the shortlisted sites spacious enough? Do we need to create new, more secure protected areas?
* Do they have an adequate prey base?
* Do they have minimal human interference?
* Unchecked poaching and logging have spiked other attempted reintroductions in specific sites—including lions, tigers, and the lion-tailed macaque.
* Can we ensure history doesn’t repeat itself with the cheetah?


***

Bringing back an extinct species sounds like a Jurassic Park kind of venture, more worthy of our cinema screens than our wildlife reserves. But that’s the ambitious plan Jairam Ramesh endorsed last month, a triumphant trumpet blast, presumably to herald more exciting things to come, in the pursuit of his still-new calling as Union minister of environment and forests.

“The cheetah is the only animal to have been declared extinct in India in the last 100 years. We have to get them back from abroad to repopulate the species here,” Jairam had said then. The minister has now taken matters further by asking the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to suggest six possible sites for reintroduction. His action follows a meeting convened in Gajner by the WII, which concluded that this dream—to see the cheetah racing across our grasslands once again—can (and ought to) be fulfilled.

[prashantsingh]

I personally feel that we MUST protect what we already have in our jungles. Once we are at a stage where we can protect our existing forests and the animals living in it , sould we venture out into new projects. Look what has happened in Sariska and Panna. First and foremost save the tiger where it belongs . Otherwise I won't be surprised if the "reintroduced" cheetah goes the same way as the Sariska tiger.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

I think let's India first stand and try to save the remaining tigers present it her forest and then we can think about the cloning of Asiatic Cheetah.I am being a person from biotechnology from a pretigious Institute in Bangalore is not very keen on this kind of projects.The Tigers are soon disappreaing and the Project tiger is a big failure and tiger poaching is on rampant.We are very excited about he new upcoming things but cannot save what we already have and may loose them soon.

[farhan.lateefi]

no place for the cheetah.. where will it run .. i guess the only place will on the newly built freeways.. save the remaining tigers first..

[sa_ali]

there are so many species in danger, first protect them.
Asia Lion, it is dwindling like anything and our states are fighting amoung themself. Gujrat doesnt want to part with a pair which can be relocated to MP, everything was done, but gujrati pride came in between. I wonder where does that pride when the lions are either poached or killed due to other encounters.
Snow Leopard, another one of highly endangered species, there is no clear data till date for this animal as to how many of these are left in the wild.
Great Indian b@$*@*d, while we are some what trying to save it by Publishing stamps, on thier number has gone down.
I love to cheetah run once more, but not at the cost of losing what we already have

[prashantsingh]

Absolutely. Till the day we keep forests and wildlife as state issue rather than a national issue .....we will face problems. The state egos and personal interests will come in and the nation will loose out in the long run. If we have to save the tiger we also have to save the animals he feeds on.....every deer, every boar everything which comes in his food chain. We have to be practicle. Fist save the animal you already have.......and then introduce something which went extinct more than five decades ago.

[panther]

The last 3 cheetahs (2 males & 1 female) were shot in 1948 by the local chieftian of a small princely state called 'Korea' in the then Central Province.
As somebody has mentioned the Raja of Sarguja, he was a Tiger slayer with over 1000 kills. He was notorious to count even the unborn cubs as his 'kills'.
It seems like everyone has a point here some valid, some emotional & some scientific;
It's absolutely ethical & valid to re-introduce an extinct specie to it's former range, after all it was human race which contributed to it's extinction. Cheetah is a animal of scrub land avoiding forestes or even moderate tree cover, it's created for fast speed which it can only attain in open grounds. Traditionally, it's pray species are Bluck Buck & Chinkara, these 2 species -though greatly reduced in numbers & range are still not uncommon in western & central India. There still are some highly suitable habitat (scrub forest) left within it's former range. The presence of prey species & suitable habitat are 2 strong points to re-introduce cheetah as a specie in India.
Emotionally, yes why not, why we shouldn't try to give the other inhabitants of this earth a fair chance to live on the land which rightfully belongs to them equally. Why not give cheetah achance to reclaim it's lost territory?? Why there should be less efforts to save or re-introduce Leopard & Cheetah respectively, only because they are less glamourous than Tiger & Lion and is expected to bring less foreign aid for our NGO's??
Scientifically, less said the better. Nature & wild animals have survived & thrived for millions of years without any guidance, assistance & interference of modern human science and I believe, they know best how to survive than any science could ever conceive. If you read natural history you'll find that the decimation of wild flora & fauna started with the advent of mordern science. Nature doesn't needs any human introduced science to recoup, minimum or no human interference is the way to go preserve nature.
Another little known animal native to India with the same traits like cheetah is a 'Caracal', which I'm going to discuss under new thread.