Saturday, August 05, 2023

Cheetahs are foreigners.

On 17 September 2022, "The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today released wild Cheetahs - which had become extinct from India - in Kuno National Park (KNP). Cheetahs - brought from Namibia - are being introduced in India under Project Cheetah, which is the world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project. Out of the eight Cheetahs there are five female and three male Cheetahs." pib.gov.in. Cheetahs are highly specialised living creatures, not posters for photo ops. "So far, nine cheetahs have died at KNP since March." TOI. "Last month, two cheetahs died due to infection in wounds caused by the radio collars around their necks. However, the environment ministry said all cheetah deaths were due to natural causes." "The two African cheetahs found dead in India's KNP this week perished due to bacterial infection in their blood after a maggot infestation in the wet skin under their radio collars that went unchecked, a leading South African expert said." The Independent. Must have been in agony. But, they died of "natural causes". So lucky! "South African and Namibian experts behind the translocation of cheetahs to India have written to the Supreme Court that their 'expert opinions are being ignored by the newly set up steering committee of the project' and they have been reduced to 'window dressing'." TOI. "The committee has denied the allegations." We Indians know everything from our ancient knowledge. Don't need foreigners to advise us. In October 2022, "The Indian government's science departments announced...a plan to organise a conference on akash or space, described as one of the five 'primal elements' of panchamabhoot alongside agni (fire), vayu (air), jala (water) and prithvi (earth)." TT. In February 2022, "Amid criticism about a central government body spreading  'superstition and unscientific' information about cows through reference material on cattle, the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA)...deferred its 'Gau Vigyan' (cow science) online exam scheduled for February 25." TOI. "A meeting of experts led by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Dr Rajiv Bahl, and Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul was held last week to discuss setting indigenous growth standards for children. This is despite several experts saying that this was a futile exercise since India was a part of the Multicentric Growth Reference Study (MGRS) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2003, which drew up the growth standards currently being used in India." TOI. But first, the director of the International Institute for Population Sciences, which conducts the Family Health Surveys,  KS James was suspended for inconvenient data. The Wire. Indian lives are cheap. Who cares if children are stunted and anemic? Just create new lower standards. But the cheetahs are foreigners. Problem.    

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