MP: Final touches given to cheetah project in Kuno; special plane to bring 8 cheetahs from Windhoek

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Final touches are being given at Kuno Palpur Sanctuary in Sheopur district for the first ever intercontinental cheetah translocation project.

A special flight carrying eight cheetahs, five females and three males, will depart from Namibia’s capital Windhoek on September 16 and land at Jaipur airport on the morning of September 17. Cheetahs will be flown to Kuno Palpur Sanctuary by choppers, which will take 40 to 42 minutes.

On his birthday on September 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release these cheetahs into an especially built enclosure in Kuno Palpur Sanctuary.

In the meantime, officials claimed that out of 25 villages, 24 villages have been resettled. Only one village Bagcha with 148 houses has been left for resettlement, which will be done before September 17.

Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav had visited Kuno Palpur Sanctuary on Sunday. He said India would acquire 50 African cheetahs in the next five years.

The Prime Minister will release cheetahs, aged four to six years, in smaller quarantine enclosures where they will be kept for 30 days and will be released later into six square-kilometre predator proof facilities having nine compartments.

So far, no cheetah has ever attacked human beings. The last cheetah in India died in Sal Jungle of Koriya of Chhattisgarh in 1947. In 1952, it was declared extinct.

(With inputs from Agencies)