'No one has seen the cheetahs in a year'

Tue, 20 August 2024

12:18

The Madhya Pradesh forest department has denied information on Project Cheetah to Right to Information and wildlife activist Ajay Dubey not once but twice.

The reason given by the forest department for rejecting Dubey's RTI plea was 'national security concerns'.

The Narendra Modi government in 2022 launched Project Cheetah to bring back the feline after it went extinct in Independent India. The cheetahs were sourced from South Africa and Namibia and placed in the Kuno national park, Madhya Pradesh.

Unfortunately, seven out of the 20 cheetahs died in the last two years due to various factors.

Many wildlife experts had forewarned the government that importing cheetahs was not a right decision as they needed an extensive and suitable habitat, which the Kuno national park did not possess.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Ajay Dubey to find out why the government is not revealing information on the cheetahs.

Read the interview here.

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