The cheetah is the only large carnivore to have gone extinct in India, primarily due to hunting and habitat loss.
Nisha Yadav
For centuries, hunting was a favoured activity for royalty in India. The cheetah, which was relatively easy to tame and less dangerous than tigers, was frequently used by Indian nobility for sport-hunting.
Emperor Akbar, who reigned from 1556-1605, was particularly fond ofCheetah coursing and is recorded to have collected 9,000 cheetahs in total.
1556-1605
British preferred to hunt Cheetahs, tigers, bison and elephants. Under the British Raj, forests were extensively cleared, so as to develop settlements and to set up indigo, tea and coffee plantations.
Near Extinction Under British Raj
Unlike the British, Indian elites and rulers of princely states continued the old practice of hunting with cheetahs in the 1920s.
International trade of Cheetahs
1947
Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Korea, Madhya Pradesh, is widely believed to have killed the last three recorded cheetahs in India in 1947.
In 1952, the Indian government officially declared the Cheetah extinct in the country.
1952
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Read next story to know hoe reintroduction of Cheetah is done in India.