8 Cheetahs to be translocated from Namibia to India

Sep 12, 2022

Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh), September 12 (ANI): The world’s fastest land animal is set to make a comeback in India on Sep 17 almost after 50 years of becoming extinct. PM Modi will visit Kuno National Park on his 72nd birthday, marking the beginning of an ambitious program to reintroduce cheetahs in India. PM will release cheetahs imported from Africa into Madhya Pradesh on September 17. SP Yadav, Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority gave major insights into the process of re-introduction of cheetahs into the Kuno National Park.He said, “First batch of Cheetahs is being brought from Namibia. 8 Cheetahs are coming in including 5 males and 3 females. They will land here on the morning of September 17. They are being brought by a chartered cargo plane. The Cheetahs will first land in Jaipur and will be brought here to Palpur via helicopters. After that, the process to release them would begin. This will be a historic movement. The last 3 cheetahs in 1947-48 had been hunted down by the King of Oriya. The government declared it extinct in 1952. We are bringing back the cheetahs and no other such example exists in the world.”“No such project has ever been undertaken in any other country where a carnivore is being translocated between 2 countries and then released. All international guidelines are being followed. We've made an enclosure of 6 square km which has 9 compartments including 8 for Cheetahs and one for herbivore,” he added.He further said, “Cheetahs will be continuously monitored to see if they're adapting to the Indian environment. A radio collar has already been attached with them for continuous monitoring even after we leave them in the wild.”