New Delhi: The first pair of cheetahs in Kuno are likely to be let out of their enclosure and into the wild by the end of October. Agni and Vayu, both from South Africa, will be released first, followed by others among 10 adults. This will be done in a phased manner, officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change have said.
Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where Project Cheetah was launched in September 2022, has 24 African cheetahs, 12 of which are cubs. None of the cheetahs are currently out of the bomas (soft enclosure).
But they will soon be released in accordance with the recommendations of the Cheetah Project Steering Committee, which was constituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to review, progress, monitor and advise on the introduction of cheetahs to Madhya Pradesh.
The environment ministry also said that the committee is regularly monitoring the health of cheetahs, and it has been observed that the newer cubs, which are born on Indian soil, are more resilient to the country’s climate and better suited to survive here.
The other update shared by the ministry is that the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, the second site chosen to reintroduce cheetahs, is also ready for use, and undergoing minor changes.
“We just need to sort out some final issues, like prey augmentation, and ensure that there are no other predators in the regions that could affect prey supply,” a senior official in the ministry, who did not want to be named, told ThePrint.
“The next batch of cheetahs expected to arrive from South Africa and Kenya will be introduced to the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary,” he added.
Since the death of Pawan, a Namibian cheetah, on 27 August, there have been no free-ranging cheetahs in India. The ministry also said that there has been no update on the forensic investigation into Pawan’s death, although the initial post-mortem report claimed that the cause of death was drowning.
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Gandhi Sagar preparations
As part of the next intake, which will commence by the end of this year, around 12-15 cheetahs will be brought.
For phase two of Project Cheetah, there are two main plans: to prepare Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary to take in future cheetah batches, and to prepare Kuno National Park’s surrounding districts and states to deal with cheetahs as and when they stray out of the park’s enclosures.
“A few weeks ago, we held a sensitisation workshop for the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and remaining districts of Madhya Pradesh, on the protocol to follow in case of encounters with cheetahs,” a ministry official told ThePrint.
This contingency plan is being prepared so that all states and districts are acclimated to dealing with cheetahs and the Kuno National Park is not tasked with bringing cheetahs back to the park every time they stray out.
According to an update by the ministry in August, a new batch of around 10-12 cheetahs will be introduced to India from different countries at least for the next five years, as part of Project Cheetah’s expansion.
Since the beginning of Project Cheetah, 20 cheetahs have been brought to the country, of which eight have died. In India, a total of 17 cubs were born, of which five have died. The total number of cheetah casualties in India, including adults and cubs, is 12.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)