Iran, working to save its quickly declining cheetah inhabitants, has proven curiosity in studying cheetah administration from India, in accordance to data obtained via an RTI utility.
Rajesh Gopal, chairman of the federal government’s Cheetah Project Steering Committee, shared this data throughout a gathering of the panel in February.
“In a recent meeting, Iranian officials have expressed their interest in learning cheetah management in India,” the minutes of the assembly quoted Mr. Gopal as saying. He additionally prompt that the International Big Cat Alliance, an India-led initiative, might attain out to different cheetah vary nations serious about studying about cheetah conservation and administration.
However, when requested if Iran had formally approached India on this regard, a senior official of the National Tiger Conservation Authority stated, “there is no such proposal at this juncture.” The authorities’s “Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetahs in India” additionally mentions that India can be prepared to help Iran and the worldwide conservation group in efforts to defend the critically endangered Iranian cheetah.
The cheetah is the one giant carnivore that turned extinct in India, primarily owing to over-hunting and habitat loss. The final identified cheetah within the nation died in 1948 within the Sal forests of Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district.
India started discussions with the Shah of Iran within the Seventies to convey the Asiatic cheetah to India in alternate for Asiatic lions. However, contemplating the small inhabitants of Asiatic cheetahs in Iran and the genetic similarity between the Iranian and African cheetahs, it was later determined to use the African species for reintroduction.
Since September 2022, India has translocated 20 African cheetahs — eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa — as a part of its globally watched reintroduction programme.
It is now set to obtain eight extra cheetahs from Botswana in two phases, with the primary 4 anticipated by May this yr.
Once discovered throughout central and southwest Asia, the Asiatic cheetah now survives solely in Iran. Experts estimate fewer than 30 stay within the wild. In January 2022, an Iranian Minister instructed state media that the inhabitants had dropped to simply 12 from round 100 in 2010.
According to researchers on the Tehran-based conservation NGO Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS), up to 400 Asiatic cheetahs roamed a big space of jap and central Iran within the mid-Seventies.
Despite receiving authorized safety within the Nineteen Sixties, the cheetahs in Iran have continued to face threats owing to a decline of their major prey species, habitat loss and fragmentation, human-wildlife battle, particularly after the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq struggle.
Researchers say many of the remaining cheetah habitats in Iran are additionally wealthy in mineral assets whereas worldwide sanctions on Iran have triggered financial hardships, pushing some individuals in the direction of unlawful and unregulated looking of prey animals.
Published – May 15, 2025 12:40 pm IST
