Bhopal: Eight cheetahs, six females and two males, from Botswana will arrive at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday under the ongoing cheetah reintroduction programme.
Kuno field director Uttam Kumar Sharma said the animals would reach on February 28, marking the third intercontinental translocation of cheetahs to the park in the last four years.
The cheetahs, currently quarantined at Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Botswana, will be transported in an Indian Air Force cargo aircraft to the Gwalior Air Force base and then airlifted by helicopter to Kuno. They were formally handed over to India during President Droupadi Murmu’s recent visit to Botswana.
After arrival, the animals will undergo a 30-day quarantine at Kuno before being shifted to large enclosures for acclimatisation prior to release into the wild.
With the latest batch, the number of cheetahs in India will increase from 38 to 46. Kuno currently has 35 cheetahs, including 27 cubs. Three cheetahs were earlier relocated from Kuno to the Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary in Mandsaur district.
Project Cheetah, conceived in 2008-09 to reintroduce the species after its extinction in India in 1952, began with the release of eight cheetahs from Namibia into Kuno by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022. Subsequently, 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa to the park.
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