A forest official said efforts were on to shift Oban back to Kuno National Park. (File photo: PTI)
These officers have been trying hard for four days to bring Asha’s partner Oban back to the safe zone.
Asha, the cheetah named by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has left the Kuno National Park, much to the dismay of forest officials. On April 2, one of the Namibian cheetahs entered a village in Vijaypur tehsil of Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh, about 20 km from Kuno National Park.
These officers have been trying desperately for four days to bring Asha’s partner Oban back to the safe zone. Oban and Asha were a couple who were released together into the wild on 11 March as the final step of the translocation process.
On Wednesday, forest workers were dismayed to learn that Asha had also left the sanctuary, which had been her home since September 17, 2022, while Oban roams unperturbed in the villages around Kuno.
Eight cheetahs – five females and three males – were brought from Namibia to India on September 17, 2022, under the Modi government’s ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme.
The male cheetahs were named Freddy, Elton and Oban, while the female cheetahs were named Siya, Asha, Tbilisi, Sasha and Savannah.
Last week, Namibian cheetah Sasha died due to kidney disease. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF-Wildlife) JS Chauhan said that Sasha had died due to kidney ailment even before his transfer from Namibia.
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