Twelve cheetahs from South Africa to arrive in Madhya Pradesh today
Twelve cheetahs from South Africa will arrive in Madhya Pradesh today, months after eight big cats had been ferried from Namibia.
The cheetahs will be released into their quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
An aircraft carrying the cheetahs will land at the Gwalior Air Force base at 10 am. They will then be taken to Kuno National Park in helicopters.
10 quarantine enclosures have been created at the reserve for the big cats, officials said.
Last year in September, eight cheetahs from Namibia were flown in to India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the big cats to the Kuno National Park on his birthday – September 17.
The eight Namibian cheetahs are now in hunting enclosures – a six square km-area where they can interact with each other – before being released into the wild.
The relocation of 12 cheetahs from South Africa comes three years after the idea was mooted by the Centre – the world’s first intercontinental translocation project that aims at reintroducing the big cats in the country.