New Delhi, July 7 (Inditop.com) India may import cheetahs to repopulate the country with the only member of the cat family that is extinct here, the Rajya Sabha was informed Tuesday.
“The cheetah is the only animal that has been declared extinct in India in the last 1,000 years. We have to get them from abroad to repopulate the species,” Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said while responding to a calling attention notice from Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Bharatiya Janata Party).
“We soon hope to do so,” he added.
The calling attention notice stirred a lively 70-minute debate in the house with Ramesh detailing the steps being taken to conserve the tiger in 37 reserves across the country, in 16 of which the situation was “truly alarming”.
“Our analysis shows that the situation in 16 reserves is truly alarming and they stand to lose all their tigers if the appropriate interventions and initiatives are not taken to improve the situation,” the minister said.
“These 16 reserves are in the danger zone from where tigers have vanished or are on the brink of vanishing,” he added.
“Twelve reserves are in good condition, while the situation in the remaining nine is satisfactory but needs to improve,” he maintained.
“The main reasons for tiger decline include poaching, degradation of forest status outside tiger reserves and protected areas due to human pressure, livestock pressure and ecologically unsustainable land-use,” Ramesh said.
