"Cheetah deaths outside protected areas show that reintroduction is a landscape problem, not a park problem." Critically examine this in the light of Project Cheetah.

Project Cheetah (2022) is led by NTCA under MoEFCC. It is the world's first inter-continental translocation of a large carnivore [2]. The cheetah KNG22 died of firearm pellet injuries in Morena's territorial forest, outside Kuno National Park [1]. This largely supports the statement, but parks still remain essential.

Why reintroduction is a landscape problem

• Too little space: a female with cubs ranges over 3,204–6,888 km², while Kuno's core is only 748 km² [3][2]. Moving out of the park is normal behaviour.
• People live outside the park: Kuno became free of human settlement after 24 villages were relocated [2]. The surrounding Sheopur–Shivpuri landscape (~6,800 km²) still has farms and villages [3].
• A new kind of threat: NTCA had recorded no human-induced deaths among free-ranging cheetahs [3], and KNG22 ends that record. Disease risk falls as animals adapt, but the risk from people rises as more cheetahs spread out.
• The goal itself covers the landscape: a 60–70 cheetah metapopulation across 17,000 km² by 2032 [2], mostly on land that is not protected.
• Centre and State share protection: a Central NTCA–WCCB team is working with the State STF of Forest and Police officers [1]. Protection now depends on territorial forest divisions and the police, not just park staff.

Where the statement goes too far

• Problems inside the park remain: the first-year deaths at Kuno came from infection, kidney failure, fights and heat stress [3]. These are problems of adaptation and veterinary care.
• Some losses were expected: over 50% of introduced cheetahs died in the first phase of African reintroductions [4]. One death in a population of 30 [2] does not mean the project has failed.
• Parks are where cheetahs breed: there are 19 India-born cheetahs [2]. Gandhi Sagar has a fenced ~64 km² enclosure [3]. Safe cores produce the animals that later spread out.
• A trade-off: fencing protects individual animals but blocks the movement a metapopulation needs [3]. The answer is a balance, not a choice of one or the other.

So Kuno is where the cheetahs breed, and the wider landscape is the real test. The way forward is to:

• expand Cheetah Mitras (450+ in 80 villages) to routes the cheetahs use, such as Morena [3];
• pay livestock compensation faster;
• include WCCB in the project's reviews;
• prepare a joint MP–Rajasthan landscape plan.

Safe parks connected by safe corridors can make Project Cheetah a model for SDG 15 (Life on Land) [2].