India is likely to receive the first batch of cheetahs from two African countries —South Africa and Namibia — for their translocation in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on August 13, multiple officials involved in the process said.
The animal will return to a wild enclosure in India 69 years after the last recorded cheetah was hunted down in Chhattisgarh in 1952.
Senior officials said that 12 cheetahs in South Africa and eight in Namibia were in quarantine preparing for the travel, of which four to eight are likely to arrive in the first tranche. Madhya Pradesh forest officials said they have been intimated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may also arrive at the Kuno National Park on August 13.
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South African officials, however, said they were waiting to make an official announcement regarding the schedule because an official memorandum of understanding (MoU) was yet to be signed. India and South Africa have already signed a draft agreement and the official MoU is likely to be signed before August 12, they said.
The Union government last month had signed the MoU with Namibia.
{{/usCountry}}The Union government last month had signed the MoU with Namibia.
{{/usCountry}}“Cheetahs have been vaccinated against all the viral diseases. In South Africa, seven male cheetahs and five female cheetahs, all in prime breeding age, are at two quarantine centres,” said Vincent Van Der Merwe, Cheetah metapopulation project manager. “As per the plan, the cheetahs from South Africa will be tranquilised on August 12 morning. The animals will be flown from OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg on August 12 and will reach India on August 13. Cheetahs from Namibia will be flown to South Africa and then to Delhi. An expert veterinarian will travel with a cheetah.”
The translocation project is being managed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) as part of the Cheetah Translocation Project (CTP) under the Union environment ministry. Under CTP, the ministry aims to breed the animals in an enclosure in Kuno National Park before releasing them into the wild.
Kuno National Park, spread across over 344 square km in Sheopur and Morena districts of Madhya Pradesh, was selected as a habitat for the introduction of the African cheetah by a Supreme Court mandated expert committee in January 2021.
Meanwhile, authorities at Kuno have finalised the preparation but the presence of three leopards in the enclosure of cheetahs was creating trouble for forest officials.
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“We were trying to shift leopards naturally but now our priority is to shift them as soon as possible. The trap has been installed but leopards are escaping forest officials. Now, the forest officials will tranquilise the animals to remove them from the enclosure of 500 hectares,” said JS Chauhan, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF), wildlife. “Other preparations including the arrangement of water and shifting of prey base of at least 100 deer have also been finalised.”
Adrian Tordiffe, scientist at the University of Pretoria, which is leading the reintroduction of cheetahs to India, said, “All the preparation have been completed in South Africa and we are just waiting for the MoU to be signed. A meeting was held on Thursday to discuss it. The MoU is with the president of South Africa.”
“If all goes well, India will get 12-18 cheetahs, but if the signature on the MoU is delayed, Namibia will send four-eight cheetahs on August 12. To reduce the journey time from 18 hours to 15, Johannesburg has been made central point. Cheetahs from both South Africa and Namibia will travel to Delhi from Johannesburg,” he added.