Cheetahs to India: The plan to settle Cheetah in the country may get a setback. It is possible that now more cheetahs from South Africa will not come to India, because animal rights groups have started protesting there. Animal rights groups in South Africa have appealed to their government’s Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Environment to stop further translocation of cheetahs to India, reports The Times of India.
The EMS Foundation, an NGO based in South Africa, has written a letter to its government expressing its concerns about a proposed project to remove 120 wild cheetahs from South Africa and export them to India over the coming 10 years. The EMS Foundation has said that it is not right to do this without solid scientific information for the future.
NGOs oppose sending cheetah
EMS Foundation requested that the South African Ministry take a precautionary approach and suspend the project until more robust scientific information and public comments are received. The NGO said it is an issue of the cheetah population in South Africa and the welfare of individual animals. There cannot be negligence in this. EMS Foundation takes up issues related to animal welfare, conservation of biodiversity and sustainability of natural resources.
Forest official approves the project
NGOs raised concerns that the department was relying on old non-harmful findings. Vincent van der Merwe, manager of the Cheetah Metapopulation Project, has argued that conservation is a global effort and that South Africa has gained environmental, social and economic benefits from reintroducing wild cheetahs. They believe that South Africa has a moral obligation to share this natural wealth with other countries.
Cheetahs make territory in the forest
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