Cheetahs at the Kuno National Park in Sheopur district, MP.
Credit: PTI Photo
The Supreme Court on Monday said it found no reason to disbelieve the Centre’s assertion that authorities are making best efforts to prevent the death of cheetahs, translocated from Namibia and South Africa, to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.
The court said that this area should be left to experts in the field as it does not possess any expertise on the matter.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra, however, asked the Centre to take suggestions by experts panels formed by it in right earnest to prevent deaths of Cheetahs, while observing the number of deaths was not low.
The court noted that the government has placed on record an affidavit contending that out of 20 cheetahs relocated, 14 are still surviving and six have died. It also said the government has contended that wrong reports have been published in the media regarding cheetah deaths.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, submitted that three more additional deaths are of the cubs of the translocated cheetahs.
The Centre said a panel of 11 international cheetah experts has been set up.
The top court observed that the Centre has made a statement that all international experts are being consulted to prevent the deaths of cheetahs.
"We see no reason to disbelieve the statement made in the affidavit. This is an area which is best left to the experts in the field as we do not possess any expertise in that field. As to whether a particular person needs to be nominated on the committee…it is a matter which is exclusively in the domain of the Union government," the bench said.
The court disposed of the application alleging the government was not taking effective steps to prevent the deaths of cheetahs in Kuno National Park.
Cheetahs were brought to the park as part of a reintroduction project after the species was declared extinct from the country in 1952.
During the hearing, Bhati said that the government is consulting experts and responding to new situations and taking all steps and contended that even a 50 per cent survival rate would do.
She said efforts are being made for the cheetahs to get acclimatized to conditions here and that the project was progressing well. She also said the government would address, with data, "factually incorrect media reports" and explained that the spike in mortality was due to the inclusion of deaths of the cubs born to one of the cheetahs.
On July 20, the Supreme Court had said the death of 40 per cent of cheetahs in less than one year at Kuno National Park doesn't present a "good picture" of Project Cheetah and suggested the central government examine if it was possible to shift the animals to different sanctuaries in the country.