Politics Over Cheetah: Is It ‘Tamasha’ Or A Historic Day?

Bhopal: Eight African cheetahs roamed Indian forests for the first time on Saturday, oblivious to the fact that politics was being played out over their transportation from Namibia to Kuno National Park.

Opposition leaders didn’t waste time in taking a dig at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who released the cheetahs at the national park in Madhya Pradesh to mark his birthday. Modi, on the other hand, calling it a ‘historic day.’

The Congress described it as a ‘tamasha’ orchestrated by the PM, while Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra urged Modi to look out for ‘our rapidly extinguishing constitutional protection’.

“PM hardly ever acknowledges continuity in governance. Cheetah project going back to my visit to Cape Town on 25.04.2010 is the latest example. The tamasha orchestrated by PM today is unwarranted and is yet another diversion from pressing national issues and Bharat Jodo Yatra,” senior Congress leader and MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted, along with a picture of him patting a cheetah.

“When tigers were first translocated to Panna and Sariska during 2009-11, there were many prophets of doom. They were proved wrong. Similar predictions are being made on the Cheetah project. The professionals involved are first-rate and I wish the project the very best!” he added.

TMC’s Mahua wished Modi in a tweet laced with sarcasm.

“Happy birthday to our Honourable Prime Minister — may he look out for our rapidly extinguishing constitutional protections much the same way as he does for extinct cheetahs,” Mahua wrote.

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The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was conceived in 2009. It was planned to introduce the big cat at Kuno National Park by November 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project.

“It is a historic moment for India,” Modi said after releasing cheetahs.

In an apparent reference to previous governments, Modi remarked that no constructive efforts were made to reintroduce cheetahs.

“It is unfortunate that we declared cheetahs extinct from the country in 1952, but for decades no meaningful effort was made to rehabilitate them. Today, as we celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the country has started rehabilitating cheetahs with a new energy,” the PM said.