Cheetahs in tiger territory? Experts warn against using Nauradehi sanctuary as third site

While the forest department is assessing the site, experts who have closely tracked the programme say that the move revives familiar concerns about habitat suitability, coexistence with other predators, and whether the project has strayed from its original purpose.

Madhya Pradesh already hosts two cheetah habitats, in Kuno and Gandhi Sagar.

Sub-optimal habitat

Wildlife conservationist Ravi Chellam said that while Nauradehi may not be entirely unsuitable, it is far from ideal.

“I hear that the habitat is largely a woodland and not an open one. That can make it sub-optimal for cheetahs, but not unsuitable. Cheetahs live in a pretty diverse set of habitats,” he pointed out.

Also read: As India makes bold strides in Project Cheetah, the race for survival is still on

Another concern, he added, is the presence of other big carnivores. “It is reported that there are more than 20 resident adult tigers, plus many transient ones. The tigers will pose a tremendous challenge to the cheetahs, especially in the denser habitats.”

Scientifically flawed?

At the heart of the discussion is a broader question that wildlife scientist Arjun Gopalaswamy raised: has the project been driven by science?

“Fundamentally, the action plan prepared to bring cheetahs was scientifically flawed. The crux of the matter was a complete overestimation of how many cheetahs Kuno could hold. And when I say how many, I specifically mean in a free-ranging situation,” he said.

According to him, the plan overestimated Kuno’s carrying capacity “by at least three or four times”, making the area too small to hold a viable population. The dispersal of cheetahs out of Kuno into surrounding regions, including Rajasthan, was entirely predictable.

“That is the natural ecology of cheetahs, which was not factored into the action plan,” he noted.

Gopalaswamy and Chellam co-authored a paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution in 2022 with other scientists titled, “Introducing African cheetahs to India is an ill-advised conservation attempt.” It stated: “The fenced-in cheetahs from Namibia are envisioned to soon move freely in India where average human population densities are 150 times higher. We anticipate that adopting such a speculative and unscientific approach will lead to human–cheetah conflicts, death of the introduced cheetahs or both, and will undermine other science-based species recovery efforts, both globally and within India.”

Gopalaswamy said each of their predictions has since come true. “Cheetahs moving out, cheetahs killing goats or getting stoned by villagers, everything has happened. The carrying capacity being so, so low, almost all the cheetahs are going outside,” he added.

He and his co-authors argued that key scientific criteria for species reintroduction, such as sufficient contiguous habitat, prey base, and long-term viability, were never met.

Also read: Female cheetah Dheera to be shifted from Kuno to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary

“What we are seeing now is another fenced site where cheetahs will be managed in small enclosures. This is still not the project that was meant to start. It’s no longer a rewilding effort; it’s becoming like a zoo in a natural setting,” Gopalaswamy asserted.

The flag-bearer

For Qamar Qureshi of the Wildlife Institute of India, however, the conversation is more nuanced. He pointed out that Nauradehi was part of the project’s original plan and that introducing cheetahs to multiple sites within Madhya Pradesh is part of a phased approach.

“This is the first stage. We identified three units here to begin with, learn from them, and then expand to other states once these areas successfully harbour cheetahs,” he says. Although there is no formal plan yet to extend the project beyond Madhya Pradesh, Qureshi believes that would be the natural next step.

He also argued that the debate over “why cheetahs” overlooks their symbolic and ecological value.

“You need poster girls and poster boys in every sphere of life. In the name of cheetah, you can conserve a lot of those dry, arid places. In the name of tiger, how much has been conserved? It is not only the tiger that is being protected; a whole array of species, plants and animals alike, benefit from tiger conservation. The cheetah is a flag bearer representing the semi-arid ecosystem of this country,” he says.

Purpose of it all?

Conservation biologist Raghu Chundawat, however, questioned that logic. He called the plan “short-sighted and ad hoc".

“There is no plan for it. It’s a random thought process. All decisions are being made without a scientific foundation… What is the purpose? Why do they want to introduce cheetahs there (Nauradehi)?” he asked.

Also read: Cheetah Nabha succumbs to injuries at MP's Kuno National Park

For him, the issue is not just feasibility but clarity of purpose. “The question should be asked: did India need cheetahs for its conservation? And if it did, then for what purpose?” he asked.

“If they had introduced them in, say, Desert National Park, it would have provided protection to the Great Indian Bustard. I would have been very happy with that. But how does introducing cheetahs in tiger and leopard habitats benefit anyone?”

He cautioned that Nauradehi, with its higher densities of tigers and leopards, will likely see “intense interference competition.” “There may be higher mortality of cubs,” he said, noting that this remains speculative but plausible given the predator hierarchy.

“For cheetah, it doesn’t matter whether it encounters a tiger or a leopard. Leopards can be more stealthy, so the danger is greater from them.”

Meanwhile, Gopalaswamy pointed out that to reintroduce cheetahs, “we have to meet the ecological requirements of cheetahs, not our requirements”. “We have to meet the ecological requirements of cheetahs, which means about 10,000-20,000 square kilometres of habitat with very good and a large number of wild prey suitable for cheetahs, and hopefully conflict-free for it to live in a free-ranging state,” he added.

As Madhya Pradesh prepares to test another landscape, scientists say the question remains not just where cheetahs can live, but whether India can offer them a truly wild home.