The Government’s ambitious plan to introduce African cheetah into Indian terrain sustained a blow on Tuesday with the Supreme Court ordering stay on the project till the necessary sanctions andpermissions of necessary stakeholders was sought. With the court already seized with a similar relocation project involving lions from Gujarat’s Gir forests to Madhya Pradesh’s Palpur-Kuno sanctuary, the amicus curiae senior advocate PS Narasimha assisting the judges in an application moved on Tuesday highlighted the Cheetah relocation project meant to introduce the exotic animal from Namibia to the Palpur-Kuno sanctuary, the same place where the relocated lions from Gir would be introduced. With almost Rs 300 crore earmarked by the Government for introducing African cheetahs in India, the Bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and CK Prasad ordered stay on the project and directed Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to produce all records and decisions along with deliberations with National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), whose consent was alleged not to have been taken. Pointing to an article in The Pioneer written by a member of the NBWL Standing Committee where the Government decision was shown as “misconceived”, the amicus in his application said, “The introduction of alien or exotic species is universally shunned by wildlife experts.” Even the NBWL Standing Committee’s approval was not taken nor did such an exchange meet the requirements of the international guidelines on translocation. The amicus pointed out to the court that Asiatic cheetahs and African cheetahs are different, both genetically as well as in their characteristics. While its introduction was opposed by officers in MoEF, the amicus questioned the hurry behind introducing the animal into India riding on a huge cost when the Project Tiger only got an allocation of Rs 80 crore for 600 national parks and sanctuaries.