NEW DELHI: Miffed for being excluded from the nine-member Cheetah Task Force, which was reconstituted recently, Wildlife Institute of India Dean and scientist Dr Yadvendradev Jhala, who played a leading role in bringing eight cheetahs from Namibia to the Madhya Pradesh Kuno National Park last month, has proceeded on leave.
WII sources said that Jhala, who was heading a small team of researchers from his institute in observing the cheetahs, besides collecting data and studying the felines’ adaptability and behaviour in their respective quarantine bomas or enclosures at KNP, may return to rejoin the on-going work before the animals are released into larger enclosures on or around October 17.
“At the moment there is complete uncertainty and we hope he returns to resume the observation of the cheetahs,” a WII source said. Jhala left KNP this morning after learning that his name was not included in the CTF which, in the days and weeks to come, will perform a number of crucial technical tasks. He will, however, take part in a Tiger Project meeting in Dehradun.
The CTF’s mandate includes monitoring the cheetahs while in quarantine to their release into the next larger enclosures to their final move into KNP’s wilds. Jhala’s exclusion from the CTF could also potentially hit the government’s move to introduce 12 more cheetahs (from South Africa) to KNP. “Jhala’s non-inclusion in the CTF is a matter between the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the government,” a senior Madhya Pradesh forest official said. Admitting that Jhala is on leave, an NTCA source asked, “How can a person monitor his own work? Is this possible?”
Since his appointment on the first CTF in 2009, Jhala has played a leading role in the return of cheetahs to India. In November 2021, Jhala led a broad-based team to draft a comprehensive 310-page ‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India (With Emphasis on the First Release Site — Kuno National Park’.
Along with the then Wildlife Trust of India chairman Dr M K Ranjitsinh, Jhala authored ‘Assessing the Potential for Reintroducing the Cheetah in India’ in 2010. Instead of Jhala, the NTCA chose to appoint WII Co-Principal Investigator and Scientist Dr Vishnupriya Kolipakam.
Setback to bring more cheetahs?
Jhala’s exclusion from the CTF could also potentially hit the government’s move to introduce 12 more cheetahs (from South Africa) to KNP.