Officials overseeing a landmark effort to reintroduce cheetahs to India failed to communicate crucial monitoring information with experts supporting the initiative from Africa, it has been claimed, plunging the project into crisis and leading to the “avoidable” deaths of at least two big cats.
Adrian Tordiffe, a top South African expert and member of India’s Cheetah Project Steering Committee working on the initiative since 2020, expressed frustration on behalf of his team over a lack of transparency from officials at Kuno National Park, where an Indian team has been struggling to acclimatise 20 cheetahs imported from Namibia and South Africa.
