A cheetah named Oban from Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park has strayed into agricultural fields and entered in Sheopur district's Jhar Baroda village, 20 kms away from the national park. According to the official, Oban was on the move towards the village from Saturday night as per the tracker attached to the cheetah's collar.
“Cheetah Oban, one of the cheetahs brought from Namibia, entered Jhar Baroda village of Vijaypur which is 20 kms away from Kuno National Park. Monitoring team has also reached the village. Efforts are underway to bring the cheetah back,” district forest officer P K Verma said as quoted by news agency ANI.
Also read: Cheetah brought from Namibia dies of kidney ailment at Kuno National Park
Oban, along with Asha, Elton and Freddie, was released into the wild last month. They are among eight cheetahs, five females four males, that have been brought to the national park from Namibia as a part of Centre's ambitious reintroduction programme of the species and were released into special enclosures. Last year, PM Modi released these cheetahs from Namibia, in the first leg of the translocation project after a decades-long effort to restore a species that was declared extinct in 1952, owing to poaching and shrinking grasslands. 12 more were brought from South Africa on February 18 and have been kept in quarantine.
{{/usCountry}}Oban, along with Asha, Elton and Freddie, was released into the wild last month. They are among eight cheetahs, five females four males, that have been brought to the national park from Namibia as a part of Centre's ambitious reintroduction programme of the species and were released into special enclosures. Last year, PM Modi released these cheetahs from Namibia, in the first leg of the translocation project after a decades-long effort to restore a species that was declared extinct in 1952, owing to poaching and shrinking grasslands. 12 more were brought from South Africa on February 18 and have been kept in quarantine.
{{/usCountry}}Also read: Don’t introduce lion in same region as cheetah: NTCA
One of them, Sasha, died of a kidney ailment on March 27 and another named Siyaya gave birth to four cubs and were spotted for the first time on March 29.
(With agency inputs)