Bhopal (MP): On his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on September 17, following the cheetah reintroduction project where Cheetahs from Africa and Namibia will be brought into the Park located in the Sheopur district. To ensure the survival of African cheetahs, preparations are being made in Kuno.
“PM Narendra Modi will be visiting Kuno National Park on his birthday on September 17. On the very same day, Cheetahs from South Africa will be brought to the park,” said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Following the PM's visit preparations are underway and at least seven helipads are being constructed in and around the Kuno National Park (KNP), officials said.
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A team from South Africa also arrived at KNP on Tuesday. Wildlife Institute of India (WII) dean and senior professor Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, who is playing an important role in the cheetah translocation plan, also reached the KNP on Tuesday, an official said.
Twelve cheetahs, including four to five females, have been vaccinated and quarantined for a month as part of preparations and now are ready to be flown to India. First cheetahs will be airlifted from Namibia first to Gwalior and later by road to KNP. Last month, India was expected to lift the spotted animals from the two countries, but the plan did not work.
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The cheetahs will be kept in an enclosure for two to three months before being released into the wild, officials said. While the unique enclosure for African cheetahs was being built as leopards are dangerous to cheetahs, the five existing leopards have also been relocated.
“Extensive hunting of cheetahs and habitat loss led to their extinction. The last three cheetahs were killed by the Raja of Korea in the forests that are now part of Ghasidas National Park,” said wildlife expert Ajay Dubey. The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was conceived in 2009 and a plan to introduce the big cat by November last year in KNP suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
“The KNP has a good prey base for cheetahs. Experts from the WII also seconded the area. Madhya Pradesh was home to cheetahs earlier. Moreover, it had a good translocation record as tigers were successfully reintroduced in Panna in 2009,” an official said.
