“Have
you recovered from the cheetah attack” is a question I often face these days. I
wish it was the cheetah. But unfortunately, in the minds of most of us, the
leopard is confused as the cheetah, and do not realize that the cheetah has
been one of the little-known victims of extinction at a time when we were
rejoicing the country’s independence. In 1947, the last of the Indian cheetahs
were hunted by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of the erstwhile state of Korea
(in the current state of Madhya Pradesh) bringing in a sad end to one of the
graceful cats which was described by Emperor Akbar as ‘one of God’s wonders’. Thereafter
a few patchy, unverified records of cheetah sightings have been registered till
1968.
It is
indeed an irony that etymology of the word cheetah comes from the Sanskrit name
“chitraka”, meaning the spotted one. Also called the hunting leopard in English,
this graceful cat once roamed the grasslands and plains of pre-independent
India in the current day states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, and
ranged widely in the Deccan Plateau through Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Chattisgarh, and West
Bengal.
Karnataka’s distinction
In Karnataka, cheetahs were recorded from Bellary, Mysore, and Chamarajanagara. Sixteen cheetahs were known to be used by Tipu Sultan, of which three of them were sent to King Geroge III after Tipu fell in the Battle of Srirangapattna. Two skins were seen in the 1860s in the Mysore state by G.P.Sanderson, a British officer who took a keen interest in wildlife.
In 1882 another
British officer Russell saw five cheetahs near Beerambadi, which is at the
northern edge of what is current day Bandipur Tiger Reserve, of which one was
shot dead. A district manual of Coimbatore published in 1887 records the
cheetah in Bandhalli in Kollegala taluk, Chamarajanagara district very close to
the southern boundaries of the current day Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. A
cheetah was seen by the British coffee planter Morris, between 1890-1895 near
Attikalpura about 15 km from Chamarajanagara town.
I learnt
my Kannada word for cheetah, ‘Sivangi’, from my father when he explained about
it when he took me to a circus in my younger days. Three decades later I read
the word again in the acclaimed book on cheetahs ‘The End of a Trail’ by
Divyabhanusinh.
Curious relationship
There
was a curious relationship between this graceful cat and humans. Cheetahs were
domesticated by Egyptians as early as 1700 BC a culture which later spread to
Assyria, and finally into India and Central Asia. Sanskrit literature and
Muslim records in India depicts the training of cheetahs to course antelopes
but at later stages of history.
Its
downfall in India is largely attributed to the disappearance of its natural
habitat - the grasslands to agriculture and other developmental activities, and
of hunting of cheetah for sport by the erstwhile princes, Mughal kings, and
later the British rulers.
The
cheetahs occupied a unique place in the imperial court life and pastime of many
of the Indian rulers. Mughals collected cheetahs for their royal hunts,
ironically to hunt the cheetah’s prey species - the antelopes. Emperor Akbar is
recorded to have collected 1,000 cheetahs, however in his entire reign he may
have collected as many as 9,000 cheetahs. Even the Hindu kings of Rajasthan and
Maharashtra used cheetahs to hunt antelope but the impact of the Mughals on
cheetahs is of a vast and lavish scale for all times says historical records.
The
enterprise of hunting also had a direct consequence on the range contraction of
its primary prey the chinkara, and the blackbuck. In 1619 the Mughal King
Jahangir, in a space of twelve days, hunted 426 antelopes in Palam. (where the
Delhi airport is now located) as per wildlife historian Mahesh Rangarajan. That
was the scale of hunting.
Cheetawala
pardhis, the hunter/trapper tribals with specialized skills to capture and
train cheetahs who originated from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh
were appointed on a monthly salary to catch cheetahs. They caught the animals
through various means including pit-fall traps, snaring and sold to the
darbars.
The
cheetah has also been a victim of conflict. It came into direct conflict with
people by preying on domestic sheep and goat resulting in retaliatory killing,
one of the possible causes resulting in its decline.
Current and historical
distribution
Today
the swiftest mammal on earth exists in 23 countries in Africa and is found in
only one relict population in Asia, in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This
depicts that this unique member of the cat family has perhaps vanished from
approximately 91 percent of their historic range with about 7,000 individuals
surviving in the wild. In Asia, the cheetah, survives precariously in Iran with
about 40-70 individuals surviving in the Miandasht Wildlife Refuge, Touran
Biosphere Reserve, Naybandan Wildlife Sanctuary and, possibly in the Darband-e
Ravar Wildlife Refuge according to the Iranian Cheetah Society.
In other
parts of Asia, it had ranged in Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Israel, Jordan, Oman
and a few other countries till the early 1950s with India being its easternmost
boundary. They were also found in the former USSR states of Turkmenistan,
Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan regions but none exists in these countries
today.
Current day scenario
Over its
entire current day distribution the drivers of the decline of this cat, known
for its docility, includes loss of prey species, conflict with humans, and
habitat loss. It’s classified under the Vulnerable category, by the IUCN, but
its subspecies found in Northwest Africa and Iran are classified as Critically
Endangered.
The
cheetah’s speed is legendary, and nothing in nature can outrun a cheetah. But
it has no solutions to high-speed vehicular traffic in Iran. The Iranian
Cheetah Society says of the 34 known cheetah deaths since 2001, 15 cheetahs
were killed in vehicle collisions. That’s a very high rate considering the tiny
population of Asiatic cheetahs.
However,
cheetahs in Iran are now a symbol of wildlife conservation, even the national
football team has adopted the cheetah as their logo.
-->
The
current and historical distribution of the cheetah in the wild - Source Durant
et al. 2017
Did the cheetah exist in India?
Some
well-noted naturalists, including Kailash Sankhala, argue that the cheetah is
not native to India and that they were brought to the country by princes and
potentates for sport. Noted among the critiques includes Valmik Thapar who
writes in his book ‘Exotic Aliens’ that “there was never an Asiatic cheetah”,
and “cheetahs in India came into this country as gifts or tributes and were
imported by land and sea from Africa and Persia”. He bolsters his arguments by
the fact that there was a flourishing trade in animals from Africa to India by
the Romans.
It is
also argued that the British shikar literature hardly has any mention of the
cheetahs. In contrary Divyabhanusinh’s book argues that the cheetah population
was already dwindling and had become very rare in India in the 19th and 20th
Centuries along with their open grassland habitats. This necessitated the
importing of these animals from Africa, for cheetah coursing, by princely
states.
But what
is notable is that most art history in India depicts cheetah from the 12th
Century onwards, while the tiger, leopard and other large wildlife have been
depicted in several of our art forms. However, Divyabhanusinh’s book has shown
Neolithic paintings from cave shelters at Kharvai near Bhopal, Chatarbhujnath
in Chambal valley, and several other locations. In all probabilities, these
cave paintings are assumed to be products of the ancestors of today’s tribals
of non-Aryan and non-Dravidian origin.
Perhaps this provides a very ancient evidence of the cheetah’s presence
in India.
Thapar
also says that the cheetahs in Mysore and Bangalore area were all escapees from
royal menageries. Nevertheless, the authors of Exotic Aliens agree to the fact
that there is no conclusive genetic evidence to prove or disprove their theory.
And geneticists have said that African and Asiatic cheetahs had been separated
thousands of years ago.
History has to grapple with science chiefly with biogeography if it has to make its point based on species distribution. Bio-geographers could pose serious questions about the theories raised by Valmik Thapar. India is part of the Ethiopian biogeography where similar species including gazelles, antelopes, small and large carnivores are found across continents. Hence, convincing bio-geographers from this perspective would have further enriched the claims made in the Exotic Aliens.
History has to grapple with science chiefly with biogeography if it has to make its point based on species distribution. Bio-geographers could pose serious questions about the theories raised by Valmik Thapar. India is part of the Ethiopian biogeography where similar species including gazelles, antelopes, small and large carnivores are found across continents. Hence, convincing bio-geographers from this perspective would have further enriched the claims made in the Exotic Aliens.
Reintroduction
With the
cheetah extinct in India, the issue of reintroduction has been bandied around
from time to time. “Thanks to Project Cheetah, the cheetah, may well roam the
plains of India again,” declares a Ministry of Environment and Forests document
from September 2010. Severe attempts came about to reintroduce them during the
period of Jairam Ramesh who was the Minister for Environment and Forests during
the NDA regime. When Iran refused to part with its cheetahs for reintroduction,
India looked towards Africa and a few cheetahs were planned to be brought from
Namibia.
The
Nauradehi and Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh, and the
Shahgarh landscape in Rajasthan were identified as potential areas for cheetah
reintroduction. But the top court of the country had other ideas and shot down
the NDA government’s proposal. With the NDA government losing power in 2014,
the issue of cheetah reintroduction has gone silent in the country.
Apart
from the cheetah, In India, four other large mammalian wildlife species went
extinct in the first fifty years of the twentieth century - the Javan and
Sumatran rhinos, the Sikkim stag and the banteng. All of them seem to be
wildlife species that are adapted to specialized habitats. These habitat
specialists lost ground in India well before the Wildlife Protection Act was
enacted in 1972. Despite strict enforcement of the act, we seem to have failed
to learn our lessons from the extinction of cheetah and other species, as we
continue to lose habitat specialist species such as the great Indian bustard,
Bengal florican, Siberian crane, Jerdon’s courser, Indian wolf, wild buffalo,
and many others that go unnoticed. Hence a critical question to ask is are we
failing to understand and manage the needs of the habitat specialists?
Fact file
Scientific
name: Acinonyx jubatus
Local
names: Kannada: Sivangi, Telugu: Chita-puli, Tamil: Sivingi, Marathi: Cheetah, Gondi:
Chitra; Hindi: Laggar, Sanskrit: Chitraka
Habitat:
Largely open grasslands, plains, scrub forests
Cheetah or Leopard?
Though
the cheetah may not look different from a leopard to an untrained eye, their
external body features are distinctly different.
·
Spots
and rosettes: The cheetah has well-rounded and solid spots on the body while
the spots on the leopard are irregular and group together to form the rosettes.
·
There
are two clear black lines that streak from the inner corner of the cheetah’s
eyes and down their cheeks to the outside edges of their mouth called as the
tear marks. These markings are missing on the leopard’s face.
·
The
cheetah has a smaller head compared to that of a leopard. It’s certainly a
slimmer animal compared to the leopard.
·
Most
animals of the cat family, including the leopards, have retractable claws but
the cheetah’s claws are semi-retractile.
A cheetah with its rounded spots and tear mark on the face
A leopard with its rosettes, notice the absence of tear mark on the face
Interesting modern day
literature about the Indian cheetah
The End
of a Trail: Divyabhanusinh
The
Exotic Aliens: Valmik Thapar, Romila Thapar, and Yusuf Ansari
India’s
Wildlife History: Mahesh Rangarajan
Reminiscences
of India Wildlife: Dharmakumarsinhji
An edited version of this article is published in Deccan Herald on 2nd December 2017