New Delhi: The environment ministry has reportedly cut short the two-year extension granted to noted biologist and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) dean Yadavendradev Vikramsinh Jhala on his superannuation on February 28, 2022. His term has been cut short one year into the extension, the Indian Express reported.
This vacancy will be filled through the ongoing process of recruitment of scientists, the ministry’s order said.
Jhala has been at the helm of India’s Cheetah project for over a decade now and had escorted the Cheetahs when they arrived from Namibia. Jhala flew with the animals from Namibia to the Kuno national park in Madhya Pradesh and oversaw their quarantine in small enclosures, known as ‘bomas’, upon their arrival.
However, as The Wire has previously reported, this is not the first time the Union government has overlooked or undermined Jhala. In October 2022, he was left out of the nine-member task force to monitor the conditions of the eight Cheetahs flown in from Namibia earlier that month. This was particularly notable as Jhala had been involved in the project to bring the animals to India since its inception in 2009.
Conservationist M.K. Ranjitsinh told the Indian Express about Jhala’s ouster, “I’m very surprised and concerned. In the interest of the Cheetah Project, the government should clarify why this action was necessary.” Jhala himself told the newspaper that he would not comment.
Jhala had reportedly ruffled some feathers in the administration while bringing the animals to the country. An Indian Express report detailed a specific incident where he opposed the transport of the Cheetah’s from Gwalior to Kuno via the noisy ‘Chinook’ helicopters, noting that the loud noises would stress the animals. Further, Jhala was also not among those officials present during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Cheetahs on his birthday, September 17.
“The fact that Dr Jhala rubbed the establishment the wrong way became very clear when he was dropped (from the task force) last year. He refused to compromise on science, and the situation only went downhill,” a colleague of Jhala’s at the WII told the Indian Express about his term being cut short.