Gwalior: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release cheetahs being brought from Namibia in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) on his birthday on Saturday, September 17.
He will arrive at the Gwalior airport from New Delhi at around 9:20 am and leave for KNP in Sheopur district, about 165km away, where he will release cheetahs into quarantine enclosures at around 10:45 am, an official said. The special cargo plane carrying eight cheetahs from Namibia will land at the Gwalior airport in Madhya Pradesh at around 6 am on September 17, which is also Modi’s birthday, said a senior police official.
The felines will be then shifted to KNP in a helicopter. As per the earlier plan, the special plane carrying the big cats from the African country was to land at the Jaipur airport, from where they were to be flown to KNP, around 400km from the Rajasthan capital. The release of wild cheetahs by the PM in KNP is part of his efforts to revitalize and diversify India's wildlife and its habitat.
Also read: In Pictures: Wild cheetahs from Namibia set to be reintroduced in India
The fastest land animal in India is being introduced under Project Cheetah, which is the world’s first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Thursday. Cheetahs will help in the restoration of open forest and grassland ecosystems in India. This will help conserve biodiversity and enhance ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration, and soil moisture conservation, benefiting the society at large, it said.
After releasing cheetahs, Modi will take part in a plantation programme at Karahal in Sheopur district and later arrive at a local school to participate in a conference of women self-help groups (SHGs), said officials. After the SHG programme, the PM will arrive in Gwalior and after a brief stay in the city, leave for New Delhi in the afternoon, they said.
