Centre request apex court to lift ban on cheetah

The Centre on Tuesday pleaded before the Supreme Court to vacate its May 8 stay order on implementing a plan to re-introduce a cheetah in Kuno Wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh after importing it from Namibia.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), through an affidavit, urged the court to brush aside an opinion of the National Board for Wildlife (NBW) claiming that it was only “advisory” in nature and “not mandatory”. The proposal on reintroduction of extinct Cheetah was put before the NBW in March 2010 which had then raised no objection to it. The affidavit filed through advocate S W A Qadri further submitted that NBW’s nod was no essential requirement for such a plan under the statute.

“NBW is primarily an advisory body to the Government of India on matters relating to wildlife, as mandated under the Wildlife (Protection) Act. Section 5C or any other provision of the Act does not make the opinion of the NBW mandatory for the government to take a considered decision on management and conservation of wildlife based on scientific information,” the affidavit said.

A forest bench had stayed the government’s plan for the project after it was pointed out that the NBW had not given its nod, besides other reasons like expected expenditure, prey base and also the feasibility study.