The second group of 12 spotted cats from South Africa is anticipated to arrive at the reserve on February 18—six months after the first batch of eight cheetahs was released in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. This was announced on Saturday by a senior forest official.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife) J. S. Chouhan stated that the cats would be flown from South Africa to Gwalior before being brought to Kuno in a news interview.
“I don’t know how many of the batch of 12 cheetahs are male and female. According to the rules, the cheetahs will be quarantined for a month, he said.
On September 17, the 72nd day of his life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first group of cheetahs from Namibia into a quarantine area in KNP. Prior to the full release into the wild, the first group is currently in hunting enclosures at the park.
The Asiatic cheetah originally lived in India, but the country had already proclaimed it extinct by 1952 due to habitat degradation and deaths from hunters who were after their distinctively patterned hides.
When India’s Supreme Court decided that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be allowed into the nation at a “carefully chosen area” on an experimental basis in 2020, efforts to reintroduce the animals picked up speed.
Approximately 12-14 wild cheetahs that are perfect for starting a new cheetah population would be imported from South Africa, Namibia, and other African countries as a founder stock for five years initially, and then as required by the programme, according to the “Action Plan for Reintroduction of Cheetah in India” created by the Wildlife Institute of India.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on collaboration in the reintroduction of Cheetah in India was signed on January 27 by India and South Africa.
In an ambitious attempt to reintroduce the spotted cats in the south Asian nation, South Africa announced that it has achieved an agreement to transport more than 100 cheetahs to India.
