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MK Ranjit Singh is known as the ‘Cheetah Man’ of India. From implementing the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 to saving the leopard from extinction, his work has been instrumental in shaping India’s conservation efforts.
The story of Ranjit Singh is proof that the true Rajdharma is to serve the earth and protect its creatures. A former IAS officer who helped introduce cheetahs to India for the first time in 70 years. Seventy years after the Asiatic cheetah was declared extinct in India, eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Seven decades after the Asiatic cheetah was declared extinct in India, eight cheetahs were brought back from Namibia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his birthday by bringing eight cubs of the African species to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Another person who was even happier than the Prime Minister was 85-year-old Dr. MK Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh, a former 1961 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre and one of the masterminds of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, had dreamed of bringing leopards back to the country even as a child. While drafting the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the former Director of Wildlife Conservation included the leopard as a protected species despite its extinction.
History of leopard in India
While there was a time when the population of leopards was very high in various corners of India, reports suggest that Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Korea shot the last three surviving large leopards in 1947. The Government of India officially declared the cheetah extinct in 1952 due to hunting and lack of suitable habitat for the cheetah. India’s first attempt to bring back the cheetah was in the early 70s. Even then Ranjit Singh talked to Iran, but the talks stopped after the declaration of emergency in ’75 and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Since then, Ranjit Singh and wildlife conservationist Divya Bhanusingh Chavda worked on guidelines and policy to reintroduce the cheetah. The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was born in 2009, but it was only in 2020 that the Supreme Court gave it final approval. SC appointed Ranjit Singh as chairman of the expert committee constituted for migration.
Why was Kuno chosen?
Ranjit Singh said, “I went to Kuno in 1981 and was surprised to see the similarity of housing. The ruler of Gwalior selected it in the 1920s as an area very suitable for lions and leopards. I declared Kuno a sanctuary in 1981. “When I became director of the Wildlife Institute of India in 1985, I tried to reintroduce the cheetah, but the numbers had dwindled and no attention was paid to conservation in Iran,” he said.