Edited By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: February 17, 2023, 18:45 IST
South African officials carefully lift boxes carrying cheetahs which will be brought to India as part of a rewilding project before loading them into the C-17 Globemaster Cargo plane (Image: Twitter)
The cheetahs from South Africa will be translocated to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Nine of these cheetahs are from Limpopo province and the rest are from KwaZulu Natal
Union minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday said the 12 cheetahs, seven males and five females, have started their journey from South Africa and are set to arrive in India on Saturday.
The cheetahs will be transported in India through the Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster Cargo plane and then they will be translocated to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
The cheetahs from South Africa are being brought as part of a rewilding project to establish a viable cheetah population in India. Indian cheetahs have gone extinct due to hunting and the last cheetah was hunted down in Chhattisgarh in 1952.
South Africa and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the re-introduction of Cheetahs in India in January 2023.
“The 12 cheetahs arriving from South Africa, under the visionary leadership of PM Narendra Modi ji to restore our ecological balance, have begun their journey to India. Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster aircraft will get them home tomorrow. Get ready to welcome them,” Union minister Yadav said in a tweet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier released eight cheetahs brought from Namibia on September 17, 2022, marking the return of the big cat to India after more than seven decades.
SP Yadav, the Cheetah Project Chief of India, speaking to news agency ANI, said all arrangements have been made at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park to ensure that the big cats do not face any disturbance.
He said that their health will be tested and they will remain in quarantine for a month after they are brought to the Kuno National Park from South Africa. Yadav said 10 quarantine boomers have been made to keep the cheetahs.
South African Department of Environmental Affairs’ Flora Mokgohloa said nine cheetahs are from Limpopo province and three cheetahs are from KwaZulu-Natal province.
Mokgohloa also said that the cheetahs are being translocated to an area with “open system”, referring to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno, and said it was unlike the South African conditions where they are “limited by space”.
“India needs to reestablish its cheetah population and South Africa is committed to expanding our conservation efforts to those places where cheetahs used to exist before,” Mokgohloa said.
(with inputs from Shalinder Wangu)
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