12 Cheetahs from South Africa Will be Relocated to MP’s Kuno National Park on 18 February

On 18 February, 12 Cheetahs from South Africa will arrive at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park as an initiative by the Indian Government.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: February 22, 2023

Last year, the first batch of 8 Namibian Cheetahs arrived in Madhya Pradesh on 17 September under the Cheetah reintroduction program. The second batch of 12 Cheetahs will be flown from South Africa’s O R Tambo International Airport in Gauteng on Friday evening, and reach on 18 February at Kuno National Park. As per a Madhya Pradesh government official, the journey to the national park will be taken by IAF's MI-17 helicopters. The official also said that Bhupender Yadav, the Union Environment Minister, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister will release them in the Kuno National Park’s quarantine enclosures on Saturday.

Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Agriculture Minister, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Civil Aviation Minister could be present for the occasion tomorrow, but confirmation on this is still awaited. The Chief of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), SP Yadav said that for the 12 Cheetahs, they have created 10 quarantine bomas at Kuno. Yadav also said that on 20 February, a consultative workshop will be held at Kuno involving international Cheetah experts, veterinarians, forest officials, and scientists. The event will focus on better cheetah management.

Before being released into the wild, the 8 Namibian Cheetahs are currently in hunting enclosures so that the cats can interact with each other. The enclosures are of a six square Km- area. As per the government official, the Cheetahs are in good health and are killing prey at an interval of 3 to 4 days. Also, a spotted cat is recovering from treatment. She was unwell because of high creatinine levels. Around 7,000 cheetahs are in South Africa and the majority of these belong to Botswana and Namibia (the world’s largest cheetah population).

It has been 3 years since the idea of relocating 12 Cheetahs from South Africa was mooted by the government of India. Initially, the nation had plans to get the spotted cats by the mid of 2022. However, MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two countries took time and led to the delay with the Cheetahs as they continued with their quarantine. Restoring the population of Cheetahs in India has been a priority and the project is expanding by even considering the ecological objectives.

In 2009, India conceived the African Cheetah Introduction Project. But did not show any results for more than a decade. Then due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the plan for bringing the Cheetahs in November 2021 in Kuno fell apart.