Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Eight cheetahs straying in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh are likely to be joined by 12 more companions soon as India is set to get a second batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa later next week.
The senior officials of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, privy to the matter, said that the members of the big cat reintroduction project would leave to fetch animals in a couple of days.
“We are expecting 12 more Cheetahs from South Africa by the end of next week after finalising formalities in South Africa. Our team will leave on January 13. After due process and supervision, the fresh batch of the large cat from abroad will be released in the same park later,” officials told this newspaper.
Under the ‘Action Plan for Reintroduction of Cheetah in India’ prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India, 50 wild cheetahs for establishing a new cheetah population would be imported from South Africa, Namibia and other African countries as a founder stock over five years.
According to the ministry officials, the plan is to bring 12-14 animals depending on the availability and status of already relocated Cheetahs from African countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight cheetahs including five females brought from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at the Kuno National Park on his birthday on September 17 last year. The cheetahs were declared extinct in 1952. The large carnivore got completely wiped due to hunting and habitat loss.
NEW DELHI: Eight cheetahs straying in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh are likely to be joined by 12 more companions soon as India is set to get a second batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa later next week.
The senior officials of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, privy to the matter, said that the members of the big cat reintroduction project would leave to fetch animals in a couple of days.
“We are expecting 12 more Cheetahs from South Africa by the end of next week after finalising formalities in South Africa. Our team will leave on January 13. After due process and supervision, the fresh batch of the large cat from abroad will be released in the same park later,” officials told this newspaper.
Under the ‘Action Plan for Reintroduction of Cheetah in India’ prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India, 50 wild cheetahs for establishing a new cheetah population would be imported from South Africa, Namibia and other African countries as a founder stock over five years.
According to the ministry officials, the plan is to bring 12-14 animals depending on the availability and status of already relocated Cheetahs from African countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight cheetahs including five females brought from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at the Kuno National Park on his birthday on September 17 last year. The cheetahs were declared extinct in 1952. The large carnivore got completely wiped due to hunting and habitat loss.
