Spotted Beauties: 12 South African cheetahs arrive at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park
After a ten-hour journey from Johannesburg, 12 cheetahs reached Kuno National Park where they were released into their quarantine enclosures today. These big cats will join the eight other Namibian felines that came to India last September
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India welcomed twelve cheetahs from South Africa that arrived in Madhya Pradesh today (18 February). These felines, seven male and five female, were released into quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and environment minister Bhupender Yadav. Reuters
Indian Air Force’s C-17 aircraft picked up these South African cheetahs from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport, and after a 10-hour flight, they landed at the Air Force Station in Gwalior at 10 am today. Twitter/@IAF_MCC
The cheetahs flew in IAF's Mi-17 helicopters to arrive at Kuno National Park. These big cats will have to stay isolated in the quarantine enclosures for 30 days, as per Indian wildlife laws. Ten additional enclosures of 50×30 metres have been built for the cheetahs. Twitter/@IAF_MCC
Before they began their journey to India, these 12 felines were sedated and loaded into crates in Johannesburg. This is the first batch to reach India after South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January to send dozens of African cheetahs over the next decade. Reuters
Under the agreement signed between the two countries, South Africa will send nearly a dozen cheetahs annually for the next eight to 10 years to help India to establish a "viable and secure cheetah population". Reuters
The translocation of these cheetahs comes three years after the idea was first proposed by the Indian government. In 2020, the Supreme Court allowed the Centre to introduce African cheetahs in the country at a "carefully chosen location" as part of a trial to ascertain if they can adapt, according to a report by Vincent van der Merwe, the coordinator of the cheetah metapopulation in South Africa. Reuters
Three of these relocated South African cheetahs are from Phinda Wildlife Reserve, while the nine others are from Rooiberg, Indian Express reported. These fastest land animals will join eight Namibian felines at Kuno which were reintroduced in India under ‘Project Cheetah’ last September. Twitter/@IAF_MCC
These South African cheetahs, which fall between 18 months to four years of age, had been living in quarantine at a reserve in Limpopo province after last August their planned translocation was delayed. Adrian Tordiff, a veterinary wildlife specialist at the University of Pretoria, who is involved in the translocation project, was also expected to accompany the felines. Twitter/@IAF_MCC
Professor Tordiff told Indian Express that many South African cheetahs had initially been brought from Namibia under a translocation programme. Meanwhile, the Namibian cheetahs at Kuno have completed their quarantine period in enclosures and are currently living in wider 6-square km enclosures. Reuters
India, which was once home to Asiatic cheetahs, lost the species in the 1940s due to excessive hunting and loss of landscape owing to agricultural practices by growing human populations. The species were declared extinct in the country in 1952. Reuters