New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a body under the Environment Ministry, on Sunday asserted that cheetahs travelling from Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh to Baran in Rajasthan was “natural territorial behaviour”.
The clarification came amid media reports stating that two cheetahs from Kuno had been tracked in the Mangrol range of Baran and the Banjh Amli Conservation Reserve after travelling about 60 to 70 km from Kuno National Park.
“Long-distance dispersal across landscape boundaries is a well-documented, natural territorial behaviour in cheetahs. The Project Cheetah Action Plan explicitly anticipates and provides for inter-state movement within the Kuno-Gandhi Sagar metapopulation landscape.
“These movements reinforce the strategic rationale for the proposed 17,000 sq. km Kuno-Gandhi Sagar inter-state wildlife corridor spanning seven Rajasthan and eight Madhya Pradesh districts,” the NTCA said.
The cheetahs, called KP-2 and KP-3, are among the first generation of cubs born in India and descended from African cheetahs translocated in 2022.
“KP-2 has been tracked in the Mangrol range of Baran while KP-3 entered the Banjh Amli Conservation Reserve after travelling 60-70 km from KNP. Both animals are positioned approximately 6 km apart on either bank of the Parvati River. Both cheetahs are under 24×7 GPS and radio collar monitoring by a joint inter-state team, with field teams deployed from the Kishanganj and Anta ranges,” the NTCA said.
“NTCA is in active coordination with both state forest departments,” it said. PTI GJS DIV DIV
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