A vanity project?

India's two leading national parties — the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — fighting over the credit for the success of Project Cheetah presents an ugly and narrow picture. Politicians need to be mindful that not everything is meant to be dragged into political controversy. Fighting like cats and dogs over every now and then issue overshadows the larger concerns that need to be addressed. The release of eight Namibian cheetahs into Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park is indeed the biggest translocation project in Indian history. Asiatic Cheetah in India was declared extinct in 1952 — five years after the last three male cheetahs were shot dead by the Maharaja of Surguja state. Now that nearly 70 years after its extinction cheetah is back in India, there is so much to celebrate. It is disheartening that politicians in India are rather choosing to score brownie points over a long due exercise. Reintroduction of Cheetah in India has certainly not been a day's game. Efforts were on right since the 1960s but the scope of success was very limited then. At that time, India only had the option to translocate cheetahs from Iran — the only country where the mammal could be found in the wild. Given the fact that numbers in Iran were abysmally low and the species was found there in the 'critically endangered' category, the country was less than willing to send cheetahs to India. Efforts, however, accelerated at the beginning of the previous decade to bring the mammal from the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) — established in Namibia in 1990. The UPA government's efforts to re-introduce cheetahs in India were constrained by several factors. The government had floated a proposal in 2010 to bring cheetahs from Namibia and translocate them in the habitats — including Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary — where the animal was found before extinction. The Supreme Court had put a stay on the proposal, citing lack of consultation with National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) — a statutory board established under the Wildlife Protection Act. Another reason for the stay was that the court was parallelly considering the relocation of lions in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary. The apex court had finally quashed the proposal in 2013. By that time, the UPA government was at the verge of completing its term, and would be succeeded by the NDA government in a year. The NDA government took the baton forward and, very responsibly, ensured that the project saw its completion. In 2017, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) sought a review of the 2013 verdict — claiming that feasibility study and consultation with NBWL was done. The government then removed additional bottlenecks by getting approval from concerned international agencies. Finally, the court allowed relocation on an experimental basis in 2020. It also appointed an expert panel for oversight purposes. It may be pertinent here to note that the detailed findings of scientific assessment, if any, are not out yet. The apex court had been right in quashing initial proposals because such relocation projects should be foolproof. It is now the responsibility of the incumbent government to ensure scientific execution and sustenance of the relocation drive. It is a major step forward but emergence of any significant glitch in the near future will only push us backwards. Overall, it would appear, and rightly so, that bringing back cheetahs in India has been a long-fought continuous battle. There perhaps is no point in seeking credit on this front for political purposes — by any political party. Lately, there has been a deliberate division of temporal space in terms of development and other achievements. Whatever is India's standing today, it is the result of a continuous process since Independence. The division of the post-independence time period on political lines is a faulty conception. Rather than contesting on trivial matters, political parties — in opposition or proposition — need to focus on the composite, and proceed forth with the responsibilities they are entrusted with. Meanwhile, let the nation welcome the cheetahs.