12 Cheetahs From South Africa To Arrive In India On February 18: Environment Minister
On February 18, twelve cheetahs will be flown in from South Africa, according to today’s announcement by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
On September 17, 2017, the day before his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first group of eight spotted cats from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh as part of the ambitious Cheetah reintroduction programme. The group consisted of five females and three males.
According to officials, the eight cheetahs in Kuno are currently killing a prey every three to four days and are in good health.
Due to an increase in her creatinine levels, one of the cheetahs got ill. After treatment, they reported that she had recovered.
In order to move cheetahs from the African nation and reintroduce them in Kuno, India and South Africa had inked an MoU in January. Most of the 7,000 cheetahs in the world reside in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs.
The only large carnivore that was entirely exterminated from India was the cheetah, primarily as a result of overhunting and habitat destruction. In Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district’s Sal forests, the last spotted cat perished in 1948.
Approximately 12 to 14 wild cheetahs that are perfect for starting a new cheetah population would be imported from South Africa, Namibia, and other African countries as a founder stock for five years initially and then as required by the programme, according to the “Action Plan for Reintroduction of Cheetah in India” created by the Wildlife Institute of India.
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