12 cheetahs from South Africa find new home in MP's Kuno National Park; animal count rises to 20
Twelve cheetahs arrived in Madhya Pradesh from South Africa on Saturday and were released into the quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district, five months after the first batch of eight of these fastest land animals were brought there from Namibia, another African nation.
Their inter-continental translocation is part of the Indian government's ambitious programme to reintroduce these animals in the country seven decades after they became extinct. The country's last cheetah died in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952. With the addition of these 12 members, the count of cheetahs at the KNP has gone up to 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released eight felines from Namibia into the KNP on September 17 last year.
An Indian Air Force (AIF) plane carrying the 12 cheetahs - seven males and five females - from South Africa, arrived at the Gwalior airport around 10 am. These spotted animals had embarked on a journey to their new home thousands of miles away aboard the IAF transport aircraft from the O R Tambo International Airport at Gauteng in South Africa shortly before midnight. Each cheetah was kept in a separate special wooden box during the journey. After their arrival in Gwalior, the cheetahs were transported to the KNP in Sheopur, a distance of around 165 kms by road, in IAF helicopters.
(Source PTI & The Pioneer)
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