Bhopal: The Centre has come up with a comprehensive plan for cheetah conservation under which, an inter-state corridor will be set up along Madhya, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
To begin with, the Centre is set to develop a huge area by combining 17 districts of the three states. It will be the world's largest cheetah corridor. This has been revealed in the annual report of the National Tiger Conservation Authority on the occasion of completion of two years of the Cheetah Project.
The report states that cheetahs will no longer be restricted to Kuno but extend to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary of Mandsaur via Mukundra Tiger Reserve of Rajasthan. The Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh is almost ready and waiting for the arrival of cheetahs. Cheetahs will reach this sanctuary by the end of this year and initially, it will have eight big cats.
The cheetah conservation area will be set up with 17 districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These are Sheopur, Shivpuri, Gwalior, Morena, Ashoknagar, Guna, Neemuch and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh; Sawai Madhopur, Baran, Kota, Karauli, Jhalawar, Bundi and Chittorgarh of Rajasthan and Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.
Work has already started on the corridor between Kuno and Gandhi Sagar and it will take five years to complete it. A total of 54,249 hectares of forest area of Sheopur and Shivpuri is also being added to Kuno National Park and a notification in this regard will be issued soon. Large enclosures have also been prepared on 64 square kilometres.
Notably, it was Kuno National Park that paved the way for the cheetah corridor. Cheetahs brought to Kuno had gone out of the sanctuary many times, with some reaching the borders of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Later they were tranquilised and brought back.
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