12 Cheetahs to be flown in from South Africa on February 18: Said By Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav
A second batch of 12 cheetahs — seven male and five female — will be brought from South Africa to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh next month. The central government on Friday confirmed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in reintroduction of cheetahs has been signed between the two countries.
Under the ambitious Cheetah reintroduction Programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight spotted felines -- five females and three males -- from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on his 72nd birthday on September 17 last year. The Action Plan for Reintroduction of Cheetah in India aims at introducing around 12-14 wild cheetahs (8-10 males and 4-6 females) that would be imported from South Africa, Namibia, and other African countries
The cheetahs will be imported to establish an ideal population of the mammal in the country.
The last cheetah died in India in the Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the big cat species was declared extinct in 1952. Former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh initiated 'Project Cheetah' in 2009 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with an aim to reintroduce wild cats in India.
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