12 cheetahs from South Africa will reach Kuno National Park in MP tomorrow

The Cheetahs will leave the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng on Friday evening to travel to Kuno. The aircraft will land at Gwalior Air Force Base in Madhya Pradesh at 10 am on Saturday. A Madhya Pradesh government official told PTI that the onward journey would be carried out by Mi-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force.

He also informed that Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will release the cheetahs to their quarantine enclosures at Kuno National Park on Saturday. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia are also expected to be present on this occasion. However, confirmation is awaited.

SP Yadav, head of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), said 10 quarantine bomas have been made for the 12 spotted cats in Kuno.

Speaking about the Namibian cheetah, the official said the eight spotted cats are now in a hunting enclosure – a six square km area where they can interact with each other – before being released into the wild.

“They are killing prey every three-four days and are in good health. One of the cheetahs was unwell as her creatinine level had gone up. She has recovered after treatment,” he said.

Yadav said that a consultative workshop of international cheetah experts, scientists, veterinarians and forest officials would be held at Kuno on February 20, which would pave the way for better cheetah management.

transfer of 12 Cheetah from South Africa This comes three years after the idea was first mooted by the Government of India. Originally, India had launched plans to bring the cheetahs there by mid-2022, but a delay in finalizing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries led to the postponement, with the animal continuing with its quarantine. are.

Most of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs live in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Namibia has the largest population of cheetahs in the world.

Restoring cheetah populations is a priority for India and will have significant and far-reaching conservation consequences, aimed at achieving a number of ecological objectives.

African Cheetah Introduction Project In India’ was conceived in 2009 but failed to take off for over a decade. The plan to bring cheetah to Cuneo by November 2021 suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(With PTI inputs)