100 to 12 in 12 years! Here's how Asiatic Cheetah on brink of extinction in this country

Despite a plethora of measures taken to increase the headcount of Asiatic Cheetah, Iran continues to see a dip in the numbers of the world’s fastest land animal.

According to environmentalists, the number of Asiatic Cheetah has been plummeting in Iran due to rampant poaching activities and human encroachment on their habitat. Besides, the big cats are also often hit by cars and killed in fights with sheep dogs. 

As per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Asiatic cheetah — Acinonyx jubatus venaticus — is threatened with “dangerous ongoing decline” and is critically endangered. 

The Asiatic Cheetahs which are still found in parts of southern Africa, have disappeared from North Africa and Asia.

According to a study carried out by IUCN in 2017, the Asiatic subspecies was confined to Iran, where “less than 50 mature individuals” remained.

In January 2022, Iran’s deputy environment minister, Hassan Akbari had said the country was now a home to just a dozen Asiatic cheetahs. The number has come down to 12 from an estimated 100 in 2010.

“The measures we have taken to increase protection, reproduction, and the installation of road signs have not been enough to save this species,” Akbari told the Tasnim news agency at the time.

“A species with a population of less than 100 cannot maintain its health in the long run, while with a population of less than 50, it will not be able to maintain its genetic diversity in the long run, so the species is in a critical condition,” Morteza Pourmirzai, managing director of the Iranian Cheetah Society, was quoted as saying.

Iran with the support from the UN Development Program and several other agencies had launched its cheetah protection program in 2001. Unfortunately, UNDP support has since been discontinued. 

Iran had pinned high hopes after three Asiatic Cheetah cubs- Pirouz and his littermates were born to male cheetah- Firouz and female- Iran on May 1, 2022 in captivity. 

But one after another, all the three cubs died. The last surviving cub- Pirouz died in March this year leaving the country’s effort to preserve the animals in vain.