Jaipur,September 15. Smarting under the Centre’s choice of Madhya Pradesh for the re-introduction of cheetahs, Rajasthan has raised the issue of re-location of lions to other parts of the country from Gir in Gujarat, their only natural habitat in India at present. Rajasthan, a state with the history of cheetahs in the wild, has been one of the strong contenders for hosting cheetahs, along with the neighbouring MP. Various surveys done the past too had identified locations in the Hadauti region of Rajasthan as suitable for cheetah reintroduction.
It is also being said that Prime Minister Modi
himself would be present at the site of release of the cheetahs. What perhaps
adds salt to the bruises of Rajasthan is the decision to take the cheetah consignment from Namibia to Kuno Palpur
via Rajasthan. For this, the flight with the cheetahs from Namibia would first
land at the Jaipur airport.
“Why the lions are not relocated to other parts of the country than keeping them in Gujarat alone?” wondered Gehlot. The authorities had just informed Rajasthan that reintroduction of cheetahs was not possible immediately, whatever that meant. Gehlot asked the officials to send a reminder to the central authorities on introducing cheetahs in Rajasthan at a later stage.
Though it was not in the agenda, the SBWL meeting
discussed both cheetah reintroduction and the exclusivity of the lion
population in Gujarat.”Perhaps the one India concept is not there when it comes
to lions,” noted Bharat Singh, a member of the board and former minister. In
fact even before the agenda could be taken up, Singh said the expert teams
which visited Rajasthan for surveys had found the Mukundara Hills National Park
in Hadauti as much good a location as those in Africa where the animals existed
in the wild at present.
As for the lions, senior officials in the meeting
pointed out that there had been a Supreme Court order on introducing lions to
Kuno Palpur pending. That was not being implemented. “Why lions cannot be
introduced in Rajasthan as well,” a senior bureaucrat wondered. An expert from the Wildlife Institute of
India(WII), who joined the meeting online, said that WII, after surveys, had
recommended introduction of lions to Kuno Palpur first and then to locations in
Rajasthan.
Rajasthan was first considered a suitable
destination for cheetahs during the time of the UPA government when Jairam
Ramesh was the Union Minister for Environment and Forests. Shahgarh Bulge of
Jaisalmer was first surveyed and found suitable for cheetahs though the local
population was not happy about the move. Recent surveys by WII have found the
Hadauti region—from Rawatbhata to Gandhi Sagar—as a suitable location for
cheetahs.
The SBWL meeting turned out to be quite unusual and
historic this time. There had been more than two postponements of the meeting
in the past due to various factors, including the preoccupations of its
chairman, Gehlot. This time too the meeting, which was scheduled at 7.30 pm,
was to be rescheduled for 9 pm. However, despite the late night sitting, it
went in detail over the issues and lasted for three hours to conclude at
midnight.
