Aircraft due to fly cheetahs from Namibia to land in Gwalior instead of Jaipur

Officials said the trial run of shifting the cheetahs from Gwalior’s Maharajpur Airforce base was carried out on Thursday.

Updated on: Sep 16, 2022, 13:29:00 IST

By Shruti Tomar

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The customized Boeing 747-400 aircraft due to fly eight cheetahs from Namibia’s Windhoek will now land in Gwalior instead of Jaipur to cut down on the flying time for the big cats before they are taken to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, around 200 kilometers away, on Indian Air Force helicopters.

A customised aircraft will fly the cheetahs. (Twitter)

Officials said the trial run of shifting the cheetahs from Gwalior’s Maharajpur Airforce base was carried out on Thursday.

The cheetahs are being flown from southern Africa for their reintroduction in India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country in 1952. India’s last cheetah died in Koriya in what is now Chhattisgarh in 1948.

The cheetahs are scheduled to arrive in Gwalior around 7am on Saturday, said National Tiger Conservation Authority secretary S P Yadav. He added the route of their flight was changed as Gwalior is closer to Kuno compared to Jaipur, which is around 300 kilometers away, and will save time.

Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the cheetahs into a 50x30 meter enclosure where they will be quarantined for a month. “Eight cheetahs including five females and three males are coming...”

Veterinary wildlife specialist Adrian Tordiffe accompanying the cheetahs said they were fed on Thursday and will not eat again until they are in India. “When we land in India, we will just transfer them from the plane to the Air Force helicopters that will take them directly to Kuno.”

The Madhya Pradesh forest department released spotted deer, a four-horned antelope, sambar, and baby nilgai in the enclosure. “The cheetahs eat once in two to three days. So after their arrival in Kuno, they can kill the prey on Saturday or Sunday,” said a forest official.

Humans will be banned from going closer to the enclosure for a month and it will be covered with green curtains for the safety of animals from infections, the official added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shruti Tomar
I have spent over a decade chronicling Madhya Pradesh’s political and social landscape, covering politics, investigative journalism, crime, human interest, and government policy, blending sharp insight with ground‑level depth. I have closely tracked three assembly elections, three Lok Sabha elections, leadership transitions in MP while exposing governance lapses, tender irregularities, and flawed policy rollouts. My reports have revealed gaps in the Cheetah project, irregularities in medical education, rigging in recruitment exams, and loopholes in policy implementation. In crime reporting, I have moved beyond FIRs to map systemic patterns — from organised crime networks and gender‑based violence to custodial accountability — balancing urgency with sensitivity. My journalism is defined by a commitment to human interest. I have profiled the marginalised Bancchda community, documented atrocities against tribal groups, and highlighted efforts to preserve their culture through heritage liquor and revival of spiritual practices. I have reported on farmers struggling with failed MSP promises, giving voice to those often reduced to statistics in policy files. Passionate about field reporting, I have reported on rampant sand mining in Chambal and Narmada, pharmaceutical companies supplying medicines under altered names, the dire condition of schools and colleges, the plight of commercial sex workers, and skewed sex ratios in specific districts. Beyond deadlines, and as HT’s state correspondent and assistant editor in Madhya Pradesh, I engage with ministers, farmers, students, and activists, believing the best policy stories begin with a single human voice. A postgraduate in Journalism and Mass Communication, I also hold a diploma in sports journalism.Read More

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