India plans to spend more than $1 million in an attempt to clone a cheetah, almost a half century after the animal vanished from the Indian subcontinent. Indian scientists plan to use techniques similar to those being employed by American researchers who have implanted in a cow a cloned embryo of an endangered Asian gaur, an ox-like animal. “Biological intervention for the long-term conservation of species is a sound and most modern way of saving species that are headed towards extinction,” said Lalji Singh, leader of the scientific team. But some Indian wildlife experts are skeptical of cloning the cheetah, saying that it would be a long and expensive process and that there is little habitat left in India where a cheetah could roam freely.
