Environment and Disaster Management › Species in news
हिन्दी — Read in HindiBig cats
The big cats of India as species, and what protects each: their status, range and census, the programmes built around them, translocations, and the international alliances for their conservation. Prelims has asked whether the Asiatic lion is found naturally only in India.
Foundation notes: The tiger · The Asiatic lion
Showing 2 of 3 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 September 2026.Show all
Cheetah
The cheetah
Copy link to The cheetahPrelims
The cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, is the fastest land animal, a hunter of open grassland and scrub that was declared extinct in India in 1952.
- It hunts by daylight sprint rather than ambush, which is why it needs open grassland and scrub.
- It is Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
- Project Cheetah, run by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with the Madhya Pradesh forest department, brought its founders from Namibia in 2022 and South Africa in 2023.
- Kuno National Park is the first site and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary the second; Banni Grassland in Gujarat and Nauradehi in Madhya Pradesh are being readied.
- The test has moved from survival to spread: a reintroduction succeeds when more of the population was born here than was flown in.
What changed
21 Sep 2026
- A female born in India gave birth to four cubs at Kuno on 18 September, the first litter born to an India born cheetah.
- The population is 55, and 36 of them were born in India.
The Indian Express, 21 Sep 2026: 'Rock Star' of Kuno is gone: Gaurav, an original Project Cheetah big cat, dies (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 18 Sep 2026: A milestone at Kuno: Cheetah born to South African feline now has four cubs of its own (opens in a new tab)
29 Jun 2026
- The project's progress report found that about half of what free ranging cheetahs killed at Kuno was livestock, mainly goats and cattle, with chital the main wild prey.
- The livestock was taken where wild prey runs thin outside Kuno's core, and one male covered 3,198 sq km in 30 days.
Mains: livestock predation makes conflict mitigation and community engagement essential, alongside prey augmentation and habitat improvement.
Alliance
International Big Cat Alliance
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The International Big Cat Alliance is a grouping launched by India for the conservation of seven big cats, and is headquartered in India.
- It was launched at Mysuru in April 2023, on the fiftieth anniversary of Project Tiger.
- It covers seven big cats: the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma.
- It works by pooling range countries' knowledge and finance.
- Its argument to funders is that a tiger landscape is natural capital and can be financed as such.
What changed
2 Sep 2026
- The Alliance signed a memorandum with the Asian Development Bank.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority's case was that a landscape should be managed whole rather than reserve by reserve.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: who launched the Nature Solutions Finance Hub for Asia and the Pacific
Also filed elsewhere
- Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve · on Protected areas, tiger reserves and eco sensitive zones
Nagarjunasagar Srisailam is India's largest tiger reserve, in the Nallamala hills of the Eastern Ghats across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- Voluntary relocation from tiger reserves: Satkosia · on Protected areas, tiger reserves and eco sensitive zones
Voluntary relocation is the moving of a village out of a tiger reserve's core area with the consent of its people, and Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha is the test case.