Cheetahs from Namibia have reached Kuno National Park in MP and we have celebrated it big…
But do we know that it has been more than three decades since the Government of India sought views of some State Governments to find ways and means for relocating the Asiatic Lions from Gir Reserve in Gujarat to other forest reserves in the country. Reason? All eggs need not be in one basket – entire population of Lions at Gir could face an unforeseen calamity in nature so some Lions be translocated elsewhere at appropriate habitats!
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan States took lead and identified several alternate habitats to be found suitable to receive the Lions from Gir. Kuno Palpur Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh was adjudged as the most ideal forest to become second home for Lions in India.
But Gujarat State continued to resist for more than a decade the logical move of reintroduction of Lions considering it would lose its monopoly over the big wild cat. In April 2013, the Indian Supreme Court ordered Gujarat to send some of their Gir lions to Madhya Pradesh to establish a second population. The court gave wildlife authorities six months to complete the transfer.
Kuno was upgraded to status of a National Park; its protected area was increased to 413 sq., km. About 1,650 inhabitants of 24 villages were resettled to sites outside the protected area. An area of 924 sq., km, surrounding the wildlife sanctuary, was added as a buffer zone to human settlements.
As hopes floated for Lions to reach Kuno, but political thinking underwent certain changes as the then Union Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh saw new mileage in the Cheetahs – India’s population had become extinct in early fifties, so fetch them from an African country. In 2009, Kuno was proposed as a possible site for cheetah reintroduction but the passage of arrival took long time as eight cheetahs reached Kuno in mid September 2022, air lifted from Namibia. India hailed it as addition of a wild cat species that had become extinct some seventy years ago!
The call for Lions has not remain unheard. Gujarat’s pride was to be maintained high – for Lions as well. So during January 2022, the Union Government drafted a 25-year plan for Lions to be relocated within Gujarat state and not in other states. It is on record that the Gujarat Government did not carry out the Supreme Court’s order since 2013. It has been resisting the relocation of Lions outside Gujarat. According to Bhopal-based environmentalist Ajay Dubey plans to reintroduce African cheetahs in Kuno National Park is another way to escape the transfer of Lions to the Kuno National Park.