India approves plans to bring back the cheetah

Jul 29, 2010, 12:59 GMT

New Delhi - India's government has cleared plans to reintroduce the cheetah to three sites, over 60 years after the big cat became extinct in the country, news reports said Thursday.

India's Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh approved recommendations by wildlife groups for two sanctuaries in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and an area in the north-western state of Rajasthan as their habitat, the Hindustan Times daily reported.

The government will spend 3 billion rupees (approximately 64 million dollars) in the first year to raise 18 cheetahs and clear nomadic settlements around the three sites, the report said.

The spotted cats are to be imported from Namibia and Iran.

'I have already spoken to the Iranian and Namibian governments for getting cheetahs,' Ramesh told the Hindustan Times, adding that it could take up to four years for the project to be fully implemented.

'The return of the cheetah would make India the only country in the world to host six of the world's eight large cats and the only one to have all the large cats of Asia,' MK Ranjitsinh of the Wildlife Trust of India told the PTI news agency.

Cheetahs, the world's fastest land animal, were last seen in India in 1947.

From a world population of 100,000 at the turn of the previous century, the number of cheetahs has declined to less than 10,000. Along with India, 15 other countries have seen their cheetah population disappear over the past 60 years.

Iran is the only remaining home of the Asiatic cheetah, with an estimated population of 100 individuals.

Most surviving cheetahs are of the African type, with Namibia hosting the largest number, estimated at 2,500.

The cheetah can reach speeds of around 112 kilometres per hour in bursts of up to 450 metres. It has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in a little over six seconds.