- Arrival of nine cheetahs from Botswana marks new phase in India's reintroduction effort
- India hosts 39 African cheetahs including cubs born locally since 2022 translocations
- LaCONES lab in Hyderabad preserves endangered species' genetic material via cryopreservation
With arrival of nine cheetahs from Botswana, six females and three males, at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, India's ambitious cheetah reintroduction effort has entered a new phase. The numbers are still very small and at risk of extermination, so India needs a robust insurance policy to make sure 'Cheetahs live in perpetuity', at least in highly protected laboratories. And yes, India has that unique 'Noah's Ark' carefully nurtured since 1998, called the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES).
Since the first translocation from Namibia in September 2022, followed by additional animals from South Africa in early 2023, India now hosts a growing African cheetah population of 39 animals that includes several cubs born on Indian soil.
As the numbers rise and animals transition from managed care to free-ranging conditions, conservation scientists say the focus must now widen, from protection on the ground to preservation at the cellular level. Yes, animals, or at least their living cells, can be made immortal through in vitro conservation.
One Indian laboratory has been quietly preparing for exactly this moment.
At Hyderabad's Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), a part of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), scientists are working on a different but complementary frontier of wildlife conservation: ensuring that if animals are lost to disease, accidents, or natural causes, their genetic material is not lost forever. Cryopreservation is a proven science now.
Opportunity in Crisis Moments
Wildlife managers and forest departments regularly tranquilise animals, whether due to injury, conflict with humans, or relocation needs. According to LaCONES scientists, these moments present crucial but often missed opportunities.
"You also have a lot of animals who are tranquilised because of different reasons by forest departments," says Dr Karthikeyan Vasudevan, chief scientist at LaCONES. "That is an opportunity." Responding to this, scientists argue that collecting small tissue samples during such interventions could significantly strengthen India's conservation toolkit.
"We should do this tissue collection more often than it is currently happening," Dr Vasudevan says. "Many of those samples are opportunistically obtained when animals are injured or captured after moving into human habitations. At that time, if you are able to collect some samples, that would be a great advantage."
Learning From a Permanent Loss
India's conservation community carries the weight of one irreversible lesson: the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah from the subcontinent. "There is only one mammal which went extinct from India, the Indian cheetah or the Asiatic cheetah," Dr Vasudevan points out. When the species disappeared, modern molecular biology had not yet evolved. No systematic effort existed to preserve tissues or cells.
"Molecular biology had not evolved by then," he says.
As a result, India today has no living cellular material from its original cheetah population, only museum specimens and historical records.
Scientists believe that gap should never be repeated. With the current naturalised African cheetah population at Kuno National Park, live cell samples and tissues need to be collected and conserved on an urgent basis.
Biobanks as Conservation Insurance
LaCONES positions its work as a scientific backup, what Dr Vasudevan calls "the UPS of biodiversity conservation".
"It is always the case that a facility like a biobank will serve as a backup," he explains. "It can give you the necessary raw material which can be worked upon." Who knows when cloning may become an everyday activity?
At present, LaCONES maintains biological material, cell lines and tissues from 26 animal species, including large carnivores and other mammals. Some of these samples have already been shared with research institutions for molecular studies, underlining their value beyond preservation.
This approach does not replace in situ conservation or protected habitats. Instead, it acknowledges a difficult reality: animals can and do die unexpectedly, even in carefully managed conservation programmes.
"When animals die unfortunately due to various instances, it would greatly benefit us to keep a backup of their tissues in a biobank," Dr Vasudevan says.
Why Cheetahs Matter to the Lab
As cheetahs adapt to Indian landscapes, scientists believe it is essential that any future losses, whether due to illness, stress, or environmental challenges, do not also mean a permanent genetic loss either.
So far, LaCONES has not accessed tissue samples from the cheetahs at Kuno.
"We have not been requesting them for tissues", Dr Vasudevan explains, noting that the project involved complex processes as animals moved from captivity to free-ranging conditions.
However, he stresses that India already has the institutional framework to make such collaboration possible. LaCONES is supported by the Central Zoo Authority, which plays a regulatory role in conservation initiatives.
"They are aware of our abilities," he says. "They will surely get to us."
Building a National Network
Rather than centralising all samples in one location, LaCONES is advocating a distributed biobank model, where zoos and conservation centres across the country maintain their own collections while remaining scientifically connected.
"We have been able to show that this works," Dr Vasudevan says, citing biobank facilities set up in collaboration with Indian zoos that hold unique animal collections.
The goal is a network where samples, protocols, and expertise are shared, creating resilience across institutions.
Preparing for the Long Term
India's cheetah programme is designed as a long-term ecological experiment, one that will take years, even decades, to fully assess. Scientists say genetic preparedness must be part of that horizon.
"There is a certain gap with the technology," Dr Vasudevan acknowledges. "But I am sure that will be overcome over years of biotechnological research."
Globally, animal biobanking is gaining recognition as an essential conservation tool. LaCONES has been identified among a select group of animal biobanks worldwide by an international specialist group working under the IUCN framework.
As cheetahs once again run on Indian soil, the science unfolding in Hyderabad underscores a parallel truth: conservation today is no longer only about protecting animals in the wild but also about safeguarding their biology, cell by cell, in perpetuity for an uncertain future.
