New Delhi: Union ministers Bhupender Yadav, Narendra Singh Tomar & CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan will release the cheetahs that are being brought in from South Africa in Kuno National Park. Twelve cheetahs will be flown in from South Africa on Saturday, they are expected to reach around 10 am in a C-17 Globemaster Indian Air Force’s (IAF) aircraft at Gwalior air base.
Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan told ANI on Saturday, “In Kuno National Park today, the number of Cheetahs is going to increase. I thank PM Modi from the bottom of my heart, it is his vision. 12 Cheetahs will be rehabilitated to Kuno & total number will become 20.”
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) head S P Yadav and the Cheetah Project Chief SP Yadav told ANI, that these felines will be kept in quarantine bomas (enclosures) for 30 days as per international protocol, if they have acclimated they will be then released in a larger enclosure where they can hunt for prey.
They will be kept in quarantine bomas (enclosures) for 30 days as per international protocol and then based on their acclimatisation, they will be released in a larger enclosure where prey will be available: Cheetah project chief SP Yadav pic.twitter.com/4UveJEZVCv
— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2023
Yadav on Friday said that arrangements are in place at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park for 12 African Cheetah being brought from South Africa to ensure that the big cats do not face any kind of disturbance.
“Close cameras have been installed and the big cats have been fitted with radio collars for live tracking. The quarantine enclosure we have made this time is better than the previous one,” SP Yadav said while speaking to ANI.
Radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs and monitored through satellite. Apart from this, a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah keeps monitoring the location for 24 hours.
The cheetah will join eight of the mammals relocated to India’s Kuno National Park from Namibia in September 2022. The first batch arrived from Namibia, when asked about the differences between Namibian Cheetah and South African Cheetah, Yadav told ANI that there is no difference in species between the cheetahs of Namibia and South Africa, but they are completely wild cheetahs of South Africa, whose character is wild.
The C-17 Globemaster IAF took off from the Hindon airport at 6 am on Thursday to bring the 12 cheetahs from South Africa. The cheetahs will begin the journey to Kuno from the O R Tambo International Airport in Gauteng on Friday evening. The transport aircraft will land at the Gwalior Air Force base in Madhya Pradesh at 10 am today. The forward journey will be covered in the IAF’s MI-17 helicopters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight spotted felines including five females from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at Kuno on his 72nd birthday on September 17 last year.
A majority of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs live in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs.