India is planning to bring over 100 cheetahs from South Africa in an effort to re-establish the big cat in the country. As per reports, the Indian government has entered into an agreement with the South African authorities to relocate more cheetahs.
At present, an agreement has been signed with South Africa to relocate 12 cheetahs to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, a senior official of the Union Environment Ministry said on Friday.
The agreement was signed last week and the seven male and five female cheetahs are expected to reach Kuno by February 15, the official said.
The official said on condition of anonymity that the 12 South African cheetahs have been in quarantine for more than six months and were expected to arrive in Kuno this month, but the transfer was delayed because “some procedures in South Africa took some time”.
The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been completely exterminated from India due to overhunting and habitat loss.
The last cheetah died in 1947 in Korea district of present-day Chhattisgarh and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
PM Modi released the first batch of 8 Cheetahs in September 2022
Under the cheetah reintroduction programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight spotted cats – five females and three males – from Namibia to a quarantine enclosure in Kuno on September 17 last year, his 72nd birthday.
According to the ‘Action Plan for the Reintroduction of Cheetah in India’ prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India, about 12-14 wild cheetahs (8-10 males and 4-6 females) which are ideal to establish a new cheetah population, will be imported. from South Africa, Namibia and other African countries initially as founder stock for five years and then as required as per the programme.
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