India: Once upon a time, all the cheetahs were extinct at home after independence, now after 70 years you will hear the roar of this ‘wild cat’

Once considered the home of cheetahs, the cheetah species became completely extinct at the time of independence in India. In 1947, Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of the then Korea State of Madhya Pradesh and now Chhattisgarh had hunted the last three leopards of the country. Whose picture is also in the Bombay Natural History Society. Since that day the leopard has never been seen in India. Now after 75 years the leopard is coming to India. Leopard habitat in India has a very long history. The earliest mention of a leopard is found in the 12th century Sanskrit document Mansolsa. This document was prepared by the Kalyani Chalukya ruler Someswara III who ruled between 1127 and 1138.

Presence of Leopards seen in India during the reign of various kings

In this regard, Divya Bhanu Singh, former president of the Bombay Natural History Society, has written a book on cheetahs. It is called The End of a Trail – The Cheetah in India. It is said that the presence of leopards has been seen in the reign of various kings in India. It is said that during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar from 1556 to 1605, there were more than 10 thousand leopards in the country. Akbar also had many cheetahs. Which he used for hunting. Many reports have even claimed that Akbar alone had more than a thousand leopards. Akbar’s son Jahangir had hunted more than 400 deer with the help of leopards in Pala Pargana. Not only Akbar, all the kings of the Mughal period and after that started using leopards for hunting.

These animals started being caught for hunting

As soon as the kings started capturing cheetahs for hunting, they started keeping cheetahs like dogs and cats. Due to this the breeding rate of cheetahs fell and their population started declining continuously. By the early twentieth century, the population of Indian leopards had dwindled to hundreds and princes began to import African animals. About 200 cheetahs were imported between 1918 and 1945. Leopards were hunted during the British rule.