The Indian government has pledged to reintroduce cheetahs, classified as a “vulnerable” species by the IUCN, into the wild. The animals will be transferred from Africa.
It was 1948, and India had gained independence from the British Empire a few months prior, when the last of the cheetahs was killed. More than seventy years later, these wonderful felines will return to inhabit the country in South Asia.
Classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), cheetahs now live almost exclusively in Africa, with the exception of a few dozen animals in Iran. According to the latest census conducted in 2016, their population is at around 7,100 specimens. At the end of the nineteenth century there were around 100,000. Attempting to settle them in a new territory is an important step for the survival of the species as a whole.
While a repopulation project was attempted in the 1970s but failed, this time, according to New York Magazine, a group of eight to ten cheetahs will be transported from Namibia and South Africa and taken to Kuno National Park, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in India. However, the plan has collided with the Covid-19 health emergency that is hitting India with particular force and, considering that the animals need to be transferred and park staff trained, the hope is that the cheetah will be reintroduced into the wild by the end of 2021, with some delay to the planned schedule.
“The venture must be viewed not simply as an introduction of a species, however charismatic it may be, but as an endeavour to better manage and restore some of our most valuable yet most neglected ecosystems and the species dependent upon them,” according to scientist and environmentalist Yadvendradev Jhala, who has been working towards this goal for years.
In the space of just ten years, between 2005 and 2015, India lost 31 per cent of its grasslands, whose role in removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is fundamental. Repopulating and protecting these ecosystems, therefore, is also important in reducing emissions, as dictated by the Paris Agreement. India’s goal for 2030 is to achieve a cut of 35 per cent in the emissions intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
Canada’s wildfire season this year is impacting air quality way beyond the borders of the North American state, reaching as far as Europe.
Two new studies have revealed that the retreat of the Thwaites Glacier is happening in a different, more complex way than previously understood.
A study of tissue samples from killer whales in Canada was the first to find a dangerous toxic chemical, known as 4NP, in the animals’ flesh.
The South African government is clamping down on the controversial multimillion-dollar lion-breeding industry, thanks to pressure from activists.
Switzerland’s glaciers are shrinking, with a new study finding that they have lost more than half their total volume since the early 1930s.
Santa Olalla, the last permanent lagoon in the park, has disappeared under the pressure of drought, overexploitation, and illegal wells.
Vulture populations in southern Asia experienced a 99% collapse and for a long time nobody knew why. Then, a historic discovery saved them.
In Australia, more and more platypuses are getting caught in plastic waste. Efforts to protect this species need to be increased.
Six years ago, Indonesia was shrouded in smoke from ravaging wildfires. Today, it is cited as a successful case in the fight against deforestation. Yet the balance remains delicate.
