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Introducing African cheetahs to India is an ill-advised conservation attempt

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 1794–1795 (2022)Cite this article

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To mark the 72nd birthday of India’s prime minister, on 17 September 2022, eight African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus; currently classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN) were transported from Namibia to India. The national and global interest generated by the culmination of this decade-long plan provided hope for cheetah range restoration initiatives. We argue, however, that the current action plan1 is ecologically unsound, costly and may serve as a distraction rather than help global cheetah and other science-based conservation efforts.

The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus; currently classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN) has been extinct in India for 70 years, and there are currently fewer than 50 individuals left, all in Iran2. Besides the unknown ecological, disease and genetic risks involved in replacing Asiatic cheetahs with the larger, southern African ones, India’s plan is based on three unsubstantiated claims: (1) that cheetahs have run out of space in Africa, (2) that India currently has sufficient and suitable space for them and (3) that conservation translocations have been successful in wild cheetah range restoration efforts. The action plan also speculates that this translocation will trigger conservation of grassland and open forest ecosystems in India1.

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Fig. 1

Nicholas Elliot.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnassials Global, Bengaluru, India

    Arjun M. Gopalaswamy

  2. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal

    Leili Khalatbari

  3. BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal

    Leili Khalatbari

  4. Mohitban Society, Tehran, Iran

    Leili Khalatbari

  5. Metastring Foundation, Bengaluru, India

    Ravi Chellam

  6. Biodiversity Collaborative, Bengaluru, India

    Ravi Chellam

  7. School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, Mbombela, South Africa

    Michael G. L. Mills

  8. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, India

    Abi Tamim Vanak

  9. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Abi Tamim Vanak

  10. Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO National Research Collection, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    David Thuo

  11. Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, India

    K. Ullas Karanth

  12. Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Femke Broekhuis

Authors
  1. Arjun M. Gopalaswamy
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  2. Leili Khalatbari
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  8. Femke Broekhuis
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Arjun M. Gopalaswamy or Femke Broekhuis.

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Gopalaswamy, A.M., Khalatbari, L., Chellam, R. et al. Introducing African cheetahs to India is an ill-advised conservation attempt. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1794–1795 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01922-9

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