The video showed a documentary on how cheetahs were domesticated and taken out for hunting parties in India under the princes.
New Delhi: On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi released three cheetahs brought in from Namibia to reintroduce the big cats in India, two videos went viral on social media platforms. While one was of the moment Modi released the cheetahs at the Kuno National Park, the other was shared by Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan.
The video showed a documentary on how cheetahs were domesticated and taken out for hunting parties in India under the princes. Sharing the video, Kaswan wrote, “When #Cheetah are coming back to #India. A look at how the last of the lots were hunted, maimed and domesticated for hunting parties. Video made in 1939.”
Kaswan’s tweet has gone viral and has garnered over 235.2k views already. It was also liked by over 7,000 users and retweeted over 2,000 times.
HERE’S THE VIDEO:
Sharing a trivia in the tweet’s thread, Kaswan said, “Historical record suggests cheetah were in least conflict with humans. Rather they were domesticated and used by hunting parties widely. Even some used to call them ‘hunting leopards’.”
He added, “Not only cheetah but most of the charismatic animals were hunted in those days by kings and britishers. Until the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was passed it was very late. Cheetah were already extinct from India. Footage is archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd.”
Kaswan also shared two photographs from the archives of Prince of Wales Tour of India in 1875-76 which showed two cheetahs which were used for hunting. In one of the tweets he wrote, “A species never go extinct instantly. It takes time and special efforts. Efforts in negative sense.”
He ended with a photograph of the King of Koriya (Chhattisgarh) which showed the ruler standing with a gun in hand in front of three dead cheetahs. Kaswan captioned the tweet as, “And then the last lot of cheetah. 3 cheetah hunted by King of Koriya (Chhattisgarh) in 1947. By 1952 government of India declared then extinct. The first step of species extinction in local population extinction. Many are facing now in India. Hope we will pay attention to them.”