MP to get 50 cheetahs from Africa in 5
Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh is going to receive 50 cheetahs, which went extinct in India in 1952, from Africa in phases over a period of five years.
Translocation of the big cats from South Africa and Namibia to the wildlife sanctuary would be done under a cheetah reintroduction project, cleared by the Centre last year.
In the first phase, eightten cheetahs are scheduled to be trans-located from South Africa and Namibia in March-April this year, a spokesman of the state forest department disclosed to this newspaper here on Sunday.
A high level official team comprising forest officers from Madhya Pradesh and the Centre and experts from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) are scheduled to leave for a week-long visit to South Africa on February 17 to finalise modalities of the translocation of the first batch of eight-ten cheetahs to Kuno National Park, the forest officer said.
The team was scheduled to visit South Africa in November last year. But,
the visit was rescheduled to February 17 owing to resurgence of coronavirus cases during the third wave. "The objective of reintroduction of cheetahs in Kuno National Park is
conservation and hence a viable population of the species has to be maintained. That is the reason why around 50 cheetahs from the African countries are planned to be reintroduced in the park over five years", the forest officer said. On their arrival, the first batch of cheetahs will be released into an enclosure built in the 344.86 sq km park which falls in the districts of Sheopur and Morena in MP. The big cats are going to spend threesix months in the enclosure to acclimatise themselves to the new conditions. The enclosure has been made predator-proof.
Lions, leopards and hyenas are known to be predators of cheetahs, particularly their cubs.
They will be routinely examined by scientists and experts from India and South Africa.