Nearly six months after they were brought from Namibia, the first two African cheetahs were released into the wild at the Kuno National Park on Saturday.
“Big day for the cheetah reintroduction programme. Two cheetahs (one male and one female) have been released into the wild in Kuno National Park from their enclosures. Both cheetahs are doing good,” Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted along with videos showing the release.
The Madhya Pradesh forest department has plans to release five of the eight Namibian cheetahs into the wild as the remaining three are yet to adjust to the wild. All the cheetahs were in a large enclosure where they could hunt.
However, the release occurs a few months after the time-frame set in the cheetah action plan prepared by the ministry. As per the action plan, the males were to be released one-two months after reaching Kuno while the females were to be set free 1-4 weeks after releasing the males.
The ministry did not offer any explanation as to why the time schedule mentioned in the action plan was not followed and why it took six months to make the first release.
Last month 12 more cheetahs from South Africa were brought to Kuno as a part of the Indian experiment to re-establish a cheetah population in the central Indian landscape. However, these are all African cheetahs and not the Asiatic cheetahs that went extinct from the subcontinent.
The Kuno National Park was originally designated as a second home for Asiatic lions to protect them against any infection. But despite a 2013 Supreme Court order, no lion translocation has taken place.