Crime Today News
Eight cheetahs will be brought to India from Botswana in southern Africa in two phases, with the first four expected to arrive by May, reported PTI on Saturday.
The information was shared during a Project Cheetah review meeting in Bhopal on Friday, in the presence of Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
The meeting was attended by officials of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, PTI quoted a press release from the Madhya Pradesh government as saying.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority operates under the Union environment ministry. It is tasked with the protection of endangered animals and the implementation of Project Cheetah, a conservation effort that began in 2022.
“Efforts are underway to bring more cheetahs from South Africa, Botswana and Kenya to India,” the press release on Friday stated. “Eight cheetahs will be brought to India in two phases. There is a plan to bring four cheetahs from Botswana to India by May. After this, four more cheetahs will be brought. At present, consent is being developed on an agreement between India and Kenya.”
National Tiger Conservation Authority officials said over Rs 112 crore has been spent on Project Cheetah in India so far, with 67% of the expenditure going towards rehabilitation efforts in Madhya Pradesh.
The press release also said the cheetahs would now be relocated in a phased manner to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary under Project Cheetah.
“The sanctuary is adjacent to the border of Rajasthan, so an in-principle agreement has been reached between Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to establish an inter-state cheetah conservation area,” it added.
Special training is being given to “cheetah mitras [friends]” in Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, it added.
Kuno National Park currently hosts 26 cheetahs, including 16 in the open forest and 10 in enclosures. Fourteen of them are cubs born in India.
Thee officials said satellite collar IDs were being used to monitor the cheetahs.
Female cheetahs Jwala, Asha, Gamini and Veera have given birth to cubs, the officials said. The number of tourists visiting Kuno has doubled in the past two years, they added.
“The state government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking permission to start cheetah safari in Kuno,” the press release stated. “This permission is necessary to start safari in forest areas or eco-sensitive zones. The decision on this petition is yet to be made.”
Eight Namibian cheetahs – five females and three males – were released in Kuno National Park on September 17, 2022, marking the first-ever intercontinental translocation of the big cats. Cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.
The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.
Kuno has also been marred by incidents of cheetah deaths, with several dying since 2023.
Also read: The dark clouds over India’s cheetah project
📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC
Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting
