12 African cheetahs to arrive on February 18, MP's Kuno National Park to be home

Twelve African cheetahs from South Africa will be released into their quarantine enclosures in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday.

The 12 African cheetahs- seven males and five females - comprise the second set of big cats coming to KNP in the Sheopur district. The first set of eight from Namibia was released on September 17 last year at a function by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The eight cheetahs from Namibia are now in hunting enclosures before being released into the wild. The government said that all eight individual cheetahs are doing very well regarding natural behaviour, body condition, activity pattern and overall fitness and hunting wild prey.

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According to the Action Plan for Cheetah Introduction in India, annually, 10-12 cheetahs are required to be imported from African countries for the next five years at least, the government statement said.

The translocation of 12 cheetahs from South Africa to Gwalior and onwards to Kuno National Park through helicopters is being done by the Indian Air Force. A delegation of cheetah experts, veterinarians and senior officials will be accompanying the cheetahs during the transcontinental translocation exercise.

To take India's ambitious project on Cheetah Introduction forward, a consultative workshop involving international cheetah experts, scientists, veterinarians, and forest officials has been planned for February 20 at Kuno National Park.

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The goal of the Cheetah introduction project in India is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provide space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range, thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.

The major objectives of the introduction project are to establish breeding cheetah populations in safe habitats across its historical range and to use the cheetah as a charismatic flagship and umbrella species to garner resources for restoring open forest and savanna systems that will benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services from these ecosystems.

This in turn will help eco-development and eco-tourism to enhance local community livelihoods and to manage any conflict by cheetah or other wildlife with local communities within cheetah conservation areas expediently through compensation, awareness, and management action.