Express News Service
BHOPAL: Even before their much-awaited arrival at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh, the Cheetah, the fastest moving animal on earth, has kindled the hope of agricultural and economic prosperity in four districts of the state.
The Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan is barely two hours (75km) drive from the KNP.
With Cheetahs being brought to the 748sqkm jungles of KNP, nearby areas are abuzz with hopes of prosperity.
Land prices have gone up manifold in villages adjoining the KNP. Prices of land Tiktoli and Moravan villages, both located close to the KNP main gate, have zoomed due to an enhanced focus on the tourism and hospitality industry.
With Tiktoli being largely a tribal-dominated village where law prohibits the selling of land to non-tribals, hoteliers and resort owners have been showing keen interest on Moravan village, which houses around 200 families (mostly non-tribals).
“The news of the arrival of cheetahs to the KNP hasraised land rates in our village from Rs 2.5 lakh per bigha to around Rs 10 lakh a bigha. Several property dealers from Sheopur district as well as neighbouring Shivpuri have been frequenting the village or making calls on behalf of major buyers from the state as well as outside who want to start resorts or hotels,” Ram Kishan from Moravan village told this newspaper.
Another villager Ram Sewak said, “Land rates are going higher with each passing day and we’ll wait for them to get best deals.”
Jagdish Chaturvedi, also from Moravan village, sees the growth story going beyond just zooming of land rates.
“Not only are Cheetahs coming to the KNP, but they are being released by PM Narendra Modi. So, it is adding to the business potential. There are not many big hotels or resorts in the vicinity of KNP. Most of them are in Sheopur town, which is around 40-60km from the park. But soon, we hope hotels and resorts will open in our and other villages that will create jobs for us,” Chaturvedi hoped.
The excitement isn’t just confined to villages around KNP or Sheopur district as property dealers from adjoining Shivpuri district, too, have been getting calls from big businessmen, who are keen on land rates on the Shivpuri-Sheopur Road and the Shivpuri-Pohri Road.
According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Namibia and dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild, the five female cheetahs are aged between two years and five years and the male siblings are aged between four-and-a-half years and five-and-a-half years.
“It is a matter of pride for the people of Sheopur district that PM Modi has selected KNP for rehabilitating cheetahs. We are waiting with bated breath to welcome the cheetahs that are being brought from an African country,” said Kamal Singh, who resides in Sesaipura village located in the vicinity of the KNP.
Bharat Sharma, a resident of Karahal, said, “We are hopeful that now our future is secure as cheetahs will be rehabilitated in Kuno National Park, which will turn the fortunes of the region for better. We are now confident that KNP and Sheopur will be known the world over and it will generate a lot of employment opportunities for the people, especially youths.”
The cheetah reintroduction programme and the participation of PM Modi has generated a lot of excitement among the residents of villages located close to the KNP.
“The entire forest region is excited as cheetahs and Modiji are arriving in Kuno National Park and Karahal.
We are ready to welcome them and just waiting for that grand moment.
This is for the first time that an incumbent prime minister is visiting the area, and we had never witnessed this kind of enthusiasm and happiness among people earlier,” Karahal resident Devkinandan Paliwal told PTI.
A senior forest department official said a special cargo plane carrying eight cheetahs will land at Gwalior airport on Saturday morning after nearly 10 hours of journey from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
“From Gwalior, cheetahs will be flown to KNP in an Indian Air Force (IAF) heavy-lift Chinook helicopter,” principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) wildlife, J S Chauhan told PTI on Friday.
The cheetahs will remain without food during their journey and will be given supper once they are settled in the enclosures in the KNP, another official said.
Chief conservator of forest (CCF) Uttam Sharma said a dais has been set up in the KNP, under which special boxes carrying cheetahs will be kept and PM Modi will release three of them in an enclosure by operating a lever.
After that, other dignitaries will release the remaining cheetahs in their enclosures, he said.
The cheetahs will be brought in a special flight of Terra Avia, an airline based at Chisinau, Moldova (in Europe) that operates chartered passenger and cargo flights and aircraft leasing.
The airline also conducted a demo of putting special boxes in the plane at Windhoek to avoid any last-minute glitch, sources said.
In view of the high-profile event, security in the district has beefed-up with the Special Protection Group (SPG) in command, an official said.
After releasing the cheetahs, PM Modi will also participate in Self Help Group (SHG) Sammelan later that day with women SHG members/community resource persons at Karahal, for which elaborate arrangements are being made.
According to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sheopur district president Surendra Jat, the prime minister will also plant trees at Karahal before addressing the SHG programme.
He said the women SHG will gift a hamper of locally-produced tribal products to Modi on the occasion of his birthday, while the PM is giving the best ever “return gift” of cheetahs to the people of this region.
The KNP is situated on the Northern side of the Vidhyachal mountains with an area of 344.686 sq km.
It was named after a tributary of the Chambal River, Kuno, a forest official said.
The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.
The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was conceived in 2009.
A plan to introduce the big cat in the KNP by November last year had suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
HOPES OF PROSPERITY
With Cheetahs being brought to the 748sqkm jungles of KNP, nearby areas are abuzz with hopes of prosperity.
Land prices have gone up manifold in villages adjoining the KNP.
Prices of land Tiktoli and Moravan villages, both located close to the KNP main gate, have zoomed due to an enhanced focus on the tourism and hospitality industry.
(With PTI Inputs)
BHOPAL: Even before their much-awaited arrival at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh, the Cheetah, the fastest moving animal on earth, has kindled the hope of agricultural and economic prosperity in four districts of the state.
The Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan is barely two hours (75km) drive from the KNP.
With Cheetahs being brought to the 748sqkm jungles of KNP, nearby areas are abuzz with hopes of prosperity.
Land prices have gone up manifold in villages adjoining the KNP. Prices of land Tiktoli and Moravan villages, both located close to the KNP main gate, have zoomed due to an enhanced focus on the tourism and hospitality industry.
With Tiktoli being largely a tribal-dominated village where law prohibits the selling of land to non-tribals, hoteliers and resort owners have been showing keen interest on Moravan village, which houses around 200 families (mostly non-tribals).
“The news of the arrival of cheetahs to the KNP hasraised land rates in our village from Rs 2.5 lakh per bigha to around Rs 10 lakh a bigha. Several property dealers from Sheopur district as well as neighbouring Shivpuri have been frequenting the village or making calls on behalf of major buyers from the state as well as outside who want to start resorts or hotels,” Ram Kishan from Moravan village told this newspaper.
Another villager Ram Sewak said, “Land rates are going higher with each passing day and we’ll wait for them to get best deals.”
Jagdish Chaturvedi, also from Moravan village, sees the growth story going beyond just zooming of land rates.
“Not only are Cheetahs coming to the KNP, but they are being released by PM Narendra Modi. So, it is adding to the business potential. There are not many big hotels or resorts in the vicinity of KNP. Most of them are in Sheopur town, which is around 40-60km from the park. But soon, we hope hotels and resorts will open in our and other villages that will create jobs for us,” Chaturvedi hoped.
The excitement isn’t just confined to villages around KNP or Sheopur district as property dealers from adjoining Shivpuri district, too, have been getting calls from big businessmen, who are keen on land rates on the Shivpuri-Sheopur Road and the Shivpuri-Pohri Road.
According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Namibia and dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild, the five female cheetahs are aged between two years and five years and the male siblings are aged between four-and-a-half years and five-and-a-half years.
“It is a matter of pride for the people of Sheopur district that PM Modi has selected KNP for rehabilitating cheetahs. We are waiting with bated breath to welcome the cheetahs that are being brought from an African country,” said Kamal Singh, who resides in Sesaipura village located in the vicinity of the KNP.
Bharat Sharma, a resident of Karahal, said, “We are hopeful that now our future is secure as cheetahs will be rehabilitated in Kuno National Park, which will turn the fortunes of the region for better. We are now confident that KNP and Sheopur will be known the world over and it will generate a lot of employment opportunities for the people, especially youths.”
The cheetah reintroduction programme and the participation of PM Modi has generated a lot of excitement among the residents of villages located close to the KNP.
“The entire forest region is excited as cheetahs and Modiji are arriving in Kuno National Park and Karahal.
We are ready to welcome them and just waiting for that grand moment.
This is for the first time that an incumbent prime minister is visiting the area, and we had never witnessed this kind of enthusiasm and happiness among people earlier,” Karahal resident Devkinandan Paliwal told PTI.
A senior forest department official said a special cargo plane carrying eight cheetahs will land at Gwalior airport on Saturday morning after nearly 10 hours of journey from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
“From Gwalior, cheetahs will be flown to KNP in an Indian Air Force (IAF) heavy-lift Chinook helicopter,” principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) wildlife, J S Chauhan told PTI on Friday.
The cheetahs will remain without food during their journey and will be given supper once they are settled in the enclosures in the KNP, another official said.
Chief conservator of forest (CCF) Uttam Sharma said a dais has been set up in the KNP, under which special boxes carrying cheetahs will be kept and PM Modi will release three of them in an enclosure by operating a lever.
After that, other dignitaries will release the remaining cheetahs in their enclosures, he said.
The cheetahs will be brought in a special flight of Terra Avia, an airline based at Chisinau, Moldova (in Europe) that operates chartered passenger and cargo flights and aircraft leasing.
The airline also conducted a demo of putting special boxes in the plane at Windhoek to avoid any last-minute glitch, sources said.
In view of the high-profile event, security in the district has beefed-up with the Special Protection Group (SPG) in command, an official said.
After releasing the cheetahs, PM Modi will also participate in Self Help Group (SHG) Sammelan later that day with women SHG members/community resource persons at Karahal, for which elaborate arrangements are being made.
According to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sheopur district president Surendra Jat, the prime minister will also plant trees at Karahal before addressing the SHG programme.
He said the women SHG will gift a hamper of locally-produced tribal products to Modi on the occasion of his birthday, while the PM is giving the best ever “return gift” of cheetahs to the people of this region.
The KNP is situated on the Northern side of the Vidhyachal mountains with an area of 344.686 sq km.
It was named after a tributary of the Chambal River, Kuno, a forest official said.
The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.
The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was conceived in 2009.
A plan to introduce the big cat in the KNP by November last year had suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
HOPES OF PROSPERITY
With Cheetahs being brought to the 748sqkm jungles of KNP, nearby areas are abuzz with hopes of prosperity.
Land prices have gone up manifold in villages adjoining the KNP.
Prices of land Tiktoli and Moravan villages, both located close to the KNP main gate, have zoomed due to an enhanced focus on the tourism and hospitality industry.
(With PTI Inputs)
