Bhopal: The eight cheetahs brought from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh in September last year will be released into the wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district in a month, state Forest Minister Vijay Shah said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released these eight cheetahs - five females and three males - into the KNP amid a lot of fanfare on September 17 last year as part of a project aimed at reviving their population in India where these distinctively spotted cat species became extinct more than 70 years ago.
These big cats from Namibia are currently kept in hunting enclosures at the KNP before their full release into the wild.
Talking to PTI, Shah said these Namibian cheetahs will be released into the wild during the next one month.
Two cheetah brothers - Freddie and Elton - will be released initially and later the rest of them will be released, he said.
Shah, however, said that the release date of these Namibian cheetahs will be decided by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"The Centre has left it to the state government to take a decision about the release of these cheetahs," the minister said.
According to him, these felines from Namibia were kept in quarantine enclosures for initial two months. They are now hunting in big enclosures that are spread in 12 kilometres. It is like an open forest. They are healthy and hunting, so they will be released into the wild soon, he said.
These eight cheetahs were moved to acclimatisation enclosures from quarantine bomas in November last year. From there, they were later released into the hunting enclosures, an official said.
On Saturday, the second batch of 12 cheetahs - seven males and five females - were brought to the KNP from South Africa. With the addition of these members, the count of these fastest land animals at the KNP went up to 20.
Their inter-continental translocation is part of the Indian government's ambitious programme to reintroduce these animals in the country seven decades after they became extinct. The country's last cheetah died in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
The South African big cats will be kept in quarantine enclosures for at least a month before they are moved into the acclimatisation bomas. A decision on it will be taken by the task force on cheetahs, officials said.
The Kuno National Park, the new home of the cheetahs, is situated on the northern side of Vidhyachal mountains and is spread across more than 700 square km.
Former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had initiated 'Project Cheetah' in 2009 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with an aim to reintroduce these spotted cats in India.
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