do i have to use icloud for find my ipad?

Find My iPad is a feature of iCloud, so Yes, iCloud needs to be logged into to turn on Find my iPad on the iPad.

If you mean do you need to use the iCloud website to find it once its lost, then no, you can use the find My iPhone / iPad App on another iOS device to find it.

Find my iPad is a service offered through Apple’s iCloud system of services. So yes, you cannot enable find my iPad without having an active iCloud account, signed in with your AppleID on the device. However, you can use iCloud for nothing but find my iPad if you wish - just disable all other services in the iCloud account settings in your iPad.