Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan releases 12 South African Cheetahs at Kuno
Union Minister Tomar announces 12 Cheetahs will arrive at KNP every year
BHOPAL / Another batch of 12 South African Cheetahs on Saturday arrived at Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan released the spotted felines into the quarantine enclosures of the park.
Union Ministers, for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar and for Environment and Forests Bhupendra Yadav and MP Forests Minister Vijay Shah were present on this occasion.
After releasing the cheetahs into KNP, CM Chouhan said to reporters, “on the occasion of Mahashivratri, Madhya Pradesh got big gifts of the 12 cat species, that have been translocated to the park from South Africa. I am heartily thankful to PM Modi Ji for that”.
He also said that with the arrival of 12 more cheetahs, the KNP would now become the centre of attraction in Asia continental.
Expressing happiness, the CM said that earlier, eight cheetahs had been introduced into KNP, and they completely adopted the park’s environment and were fully living a natural life.
“The thinking of PM Modi is of protecting the environment and conserving wildlife, which is giving direction to the entire world. The cheetah project is an effort to promote this emotion”, Chouhan also said.
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This is the second batch of cheetahs brought to the park from Namibia of South Africa. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight cheetahs comprising 5 females and three males on his birthday, September 17 into the same forest park last year. So far, A total of 20 spotted felines have been translocated in the country (in KNP) under the ongoing ‘Cheetah Reintroduction Project’. These 12 cheetahs comprising seven males and five females landed at the Indian Air Force (IAF) Base in Gwalior at 10 am on the same day from the IAF’s Boeing C-17 Globemaster. After that, they were lifted to KNP using IAF’s Mi-17 helicopter.
On this occasion, Union Minister Tomar announced that twelve Cheetahs would be brought to KNP every year. He said that if this is the case then Kuno would be a thriving place for big cats in the upcoming years.
The eight cheetahs, who were translocated earlier are currently in hunting enclosures before being released into the wild. The last cheetah died in the country in the Koriya district of present-day Chhatisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
A delegation of cheetah experts, veterinarians and senior forest officials from both the country has come with the felines, which will look after the translocated spotted cats.
All 12 newly translocated cheetahs have been housed in specially created enclosures at KNP for completing the mandatory quarantine period where the animals will be intensively monitored.
Elaborate arrangements have been made for the care of the felines, and 10 quarantine enclosures including two old and 8 new have been prepared. Besides, two isolation wards have also been prepared, said in a government press note.
The KNP has been selected as a beautiful and ideal habitat for the cheetahs, where there are large grasslands, small hills, and forests. It is very suitable the spotted creatures. Nearby villagers to KNP have been made ‘Cheetah Mitras’ to ensure the security of the animals, the CM also interacted with them after release the cheetahs. Heavy security arrangements have been done to prevent poaching activities.
