Out of sight, out of mind. This, evidently, is the mantra that the Union government lives by. Any data showing the Narendra Modi government in poor light is denied, banned or hidden away. Economic statistics are not released, international data on lagging social markers dismissed as fake and, now, the Union environment ministry has placed an embargo on who can disseminate information on Project Cheetah, which has been facing setbacks since it was launched by Mr Modi on his birthday last year. Five of the 20 cheetahs that had been flown in from Africa and three of the four cubs born in the Kuno National Park have died since March this year. The official statement from the National Tiger Conservation Authority — the agency implementing this project and now the only body allowed to issue statements about it — claims that all the animals died of natural causes. But experts within and outside India guiding the project disagree. Instead of disseminating information on the errors and sharing the data for wider circulation, attempts are now on to sweep the failures under the carpet. Even members of the project are apparently being kept in the dark. This lack of transparency is inimical to the purpose of conservation.
Sharing knowledge with scientists across the globe is critical to protecting endangered species and fragile ecosystems. Reportedly, the radio collars that the cheetahs wear are causing fatal infections given the humidity in India, unlike in drier African conditions. Weather patterns are changing worldwide. Hence, the new finding could have a profound influence on conservation or reintroduction programmes of species. Interestingly, the refusal to share information, especially that pertaining to failure, is not peculiar to India: it blights conservation projects around the world. In 2019, a study of scientific journals revealed that analyses of failures are uncommon in peer-reviewed conservation literature, even though lessons from failures are as valuable as those from successes when trying to understand what works and what does not in this field. In the few cases where failure was analysed, poor communication of information, over-expectations — Project Cheetah has been criticised as a ‘vanity project’ for the prime minister — and avoidance of difficult questions emerged as the three main causes of project failures. This lack of transparency is also indicative of the bureaucratisation of ecological projects and goes against the democratic ethos.
