Even as eight Nigerian cheetahs who were brought to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Palpur in September last year await their release in the wild, they are likely to be joined by a second batch of 12 big cats from South Africa on February 18. All of them are likely to be in enclosures, although the separate one for next few months.
According to officials in the Union Environment Ministry, the felines will be flown from South Africa to Gwalior before being transported to Kuno. The cheetahs will be kept under one-month quarantine as per the norms, he said. Cheetahs are being reintroduced nearly seven decades after the species became extinct in India.
The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight cheetahs - five females and three males - from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at KNP on his 72nd birthday on September 17.The first batch of cheetahs is currently in hunting enclosures at the park before their full release into the wild.
The officials have set up 10 quarantine "bomas" (enclosures) for the new guests. The availability of natural prey within the enclosure helped the cheetahs to get accustomed to hunting Indian prey species.
Ever since they were translocated, the five female and three male cats have remained within the safe limits of the ‘bomas’ (predator-proof enclosures) especially created for them in the national park. The availability of natural prey within the enclosure helped the African cats to get accustomed to hunting Indian prey species.
The phase-wise translocation is part of India’s mega plan to establish a free-ranging, breeding founder population of cheetahs in the country. India had lost its native cheetah population almost seven decades ago to hunting and loss of habitat. Following the import of the 12 cheetahs, India plans to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years.