PM Modi also said that "all cheetahs are healthy, active and adjusting well."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday shared a video of two cheetahs, who have been released to a bigger enclosure of Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP). The two of eight cheetahs have completed the mandatory quarantine. PM Modi also said that “all cheetahs are healthy, active and adjusting well.”
The text attached to the video read, “Great news. I am told that after the mandatory quarantine, 2 cheetahs have been released to a bigger enclosure for further adaptation to the Kuno habitat. Others will be released soon. I'm also glad to know that all cheetahs are healthy, active and adjusting well.”
The cheetahs were brought to India from Namibia as a part of an intercontinental translocation project called Project Cheetah.
PM Modi, on the occasion of his 72nd birthday, this year, released three cheetahs into the Kuno National Park. At that time, PM Modi had said, "Project Cheetah, under which the cheetahs were reintroduced in the country after they became extinct seven decades ago, is our endeavour towards environment and wildlife conservation. Cheetahs are our guests; we should give them a few months to make Kuno National Park their home.”
Meanwhile, KNP Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma told news agency PTI, "Two cheetahs were released in the larger enclosure from the quarantine zones on Saturday. The remaining six cheetahs will also be released in the (acclimatisation enclosure) in a phased manner."
The eight wild cats - five females and three males within the age group of 30-66 months - were released in the dedicated quarantine zones on September 17.
Wild animals, according to International norms, need to be kept in quarantine for a month to check the spread of any infection before and after their translocation to another country, experts had said.