| Font Size |
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has asked Iran to provide the cheetahs. The other option being considered are African cheetahs being bred in Sharjah.
The cheetah has been extinct in India since the 1960s, the only mammal other than the Sumatran Rhino to be wiped out from the country.
Last year, wildlife experts M K Ranjitsinh and Divyabhanu Singh, affiliated with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), proposed reintroducing the cheetah in India. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh pushed the project and sought a technical report from the WTI and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) on possible sites where the cheetah could be reintroduced.
The report, submitted today, identified Nauradehi sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh (1,197 sq km), Shahgarh on the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan (4,000 sq km) and Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh (6,800 sq km).
“We need to bring cheetahs to all three sites at once to create a meta-population. It will cost about Rs 100 crore to restore each site. This will include moving out settlements, introducing prey and all-round restorative inputs for the site,” said WII scientist Yadavendra Jhala.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
Kuno was already chosen in 1995 as a site for reintroducing Asiatic Lions. 24 tribal villages were shifted out for this, destroying their livelihoods. No lions came. Kuno did, however, receive a few truck-loads of monkeys that were removed from North Block, New Delhi around 5 years ago. Now it's being touted as a site for cheetah reintroduction. What a circus!
Hmmmm.. 300 crores for 18 Cheetahs.. means 16.66 crores EACH..For Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan..Pork barrel type of political favour project to please the well known corrupt politicians..How much money we spent for the study?? Any other alternatives suggested to obtain or breed the Cheetahs? Can we somehow use this money for improving: 1.education for the poor. 2.Improve infrastructure - roads. 3.Provide basic security to the average citizen. 4.Protection to the innocent from terrorists. 5.A legal system to expedite and find solutions in the courts. 6.Any thing to improve the quality of lives inclduing skilled education for finding employment. Most of the funds allocated are funneled to the corrupt politicians and their goons and never reach the so called porject..Only the people can stop this..Unite and fight. Young generation - wake up.. It is your future.
"Kutch in Gujarat is the most promising area with 9000 sq kms. We can have 20-30 cheetahs over there," said wildlife scientist, Y V Jhala. What has changed in less than a year to bypass Kutch? Only because it falls in Gujarat?
ALL THESE SO CALLED "PROJECTS" INCLUDING THE CWG ARE NOTHING BUT SUSTAINERS TO THE LOYAL CONGRESSMEN/WOMEN..THEY GOBBLE UP THE MONEYS ALLOTTED FOR SUCH PROJECTS..
Instead of investing money in these stupid projects I wish the govt could spend this money on improving tiger conservation. I hoped jairam ramesh had better sense than spending money on these loony schemes. He could Improve tiger habitat by reducing villages in and around them & stop poaching. what is gone is gone- Indian cheetah will never come back- lets save what we have now. There is a mountain load of money we could make via eco-tourism- people overseas are scared of visiting India- matching efforts in creating world class eco-tourism facilities could go a long way.