Iran has shown interest in learning the management of cheetahs from India. File | Photo Credit: PTI
Iran, who is working to save his rapidly declining cheetah population, has shown interest in learning a gepark from India, according to information received through the RTI application.
Rajesh Gopal, President of the Government Committee for the Cheetah project, shared this information during the panel meeting in February.
“At the recent meeting, Iranian officials expressed their interest in learning the treatment of cheetahs in India,” said Mr. Gopal. He also suggested that the International Big Cat Alliance, an Indian initiative in India, could address other Gepard series countries that would be interested in learning about the protection and management of cheetahs.
However, when he asked in this respect, whether Iran had formally turned to India in this respect, a higher official of the National Tigers National Office said: “At this point, such a proposal does not exist.” The government “action plan for the introduction of cheetahs in India” also mentions that India would be willing to help Iran and the global community of nature conservation in efforts to protect the critically endangered Iranian cheetark.
Cheetage is the only big carnivore that has been extinct in India, mainly because of excessive hunting and loss of habitats. The last known cheetah in the country died in 1948 in Sal Forests of Chantisgarh’s Koriya District.
India began discussions with Iran Shah at the age of 70 to bring the Asian gepark to India in exchange for Asian lions. However, given the small population of Asian cheetahs in Iran and the genetic similarity between Iranian and African cheetahs, it later decided to use African species for introduction.
Since September 2022, India has translated 20 African cheetahs – eight of Namibia and 12 from South Africa – as part of the worldwide reintroduction program.
It is now set to get another eight cheetahs from Botswana in two phases, while the first four are expected until May this year.
Once found across medium and southwestern Asia, Asian cheetah now survives only in Iran. Experts estimate that less than 30 remains in the wild. In January 2022, the Minister told the state media that the population fell to only 12 out of approximately 100 in 2010.
According to scientists in Tehran protection of the NGO Iranian Gepark (ICS), up to 400 Asian cheetahs in the mid -1970s wandered a large area of Eastern and Middle Iran.
Although they received legal protection in the 1960s, Iran cheetahs continued to face threats due to a decrease in their primary species of prey, loss and fragmentation of habitats, conflict of human and wild life, especially after the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the war Iran-Irak.
Scientists say that most of the remaining cheetahs in Iran are also rich in mineral resources, while international sanctions against Iran have caused economic problems and pushed some people to illegal and unregulated prey hunting.
Published – May 15 2025 12:40
