Thread by @rishpardikar

This story begins with a poster.

Not very innocuous. But not that bad either. Cheetahs are coming into India. Let's give filming rights. Right? Not quite

PS - link to my report for @TheWireScience at the end

Last month, Kuno officials released a tender for “exclusive commercial filming rights” for the cheetah introduction project.

Some cheetahs may arrive later this year or early next year. Filmmakers can film them over 300 days

The problem is that there seems to be no coherent plan. At least none that is in public domain. And no one involved in the introduction project has been able to answer even the most basic Qs like how many cheetahs are being flown in, where will they be taken, is it only Kuno? etc

Ullas Karanth of @cwsindia: If there are cheetahs in an enclosure, you can film them for commercial purposes, but this is not a conservation plan.

Karanth also raised concerns about Kuno's small habitat & the fragility of the cheetah

@abi_vanak: I am all for recording this historic event, but I would rather see the scientific plan – both for documentation of the introduction process & the process itself – than a tender for commercial filming... It’s a landmark project that is unnecessarily shrouded in secrecy

Oh best part: I sent @ntca_india many questions over the last 9 days. No reply

Publicly-funded project. But no public accountability

There are a lot of other issues also. Wish I had the patience to condense to tweets. Sadly, I don't

So here's the report. Please read science.thewire.in/environment/ku…

Coming to*

Said it before, saying it again. Saddest thing about this project is that if some cheetahs die, no one will really care bc conservation has been thoroughly desensitised to even think of the plight of individual animals. And given the level of planning, chances of death seem high