Watch: 12 Cheetahs from South Africa released in Kuno National Park

Union Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Forest, Bhupender Yadav along with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan released the second batch of 12 cheetahs in their quarantine enclosures at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park in Sheopur district.

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The seven males and five females brought to KNP are wild born and have grown competing with other predators like lions, wild dogs, leopards and hyenas. This is expected to make them comfortable among the tigers, wolves, leopards, sloth bears, dholes and striped hyenas found in the area.

The CM thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this gift to Madhya Pradesh on Mahashivratri. With this the total number of cheetahs in KNP has gone up to 20 as eight of these cats from Namibia had been released earlier by PM Modi last year on September 17.

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Among the 12 cheetahs that have come, 3 have been made available by Tswalu Kalahari Reserve; 3 by Phinda Game Reserve; 3 by Waterberg Biosphere; 2 by Kwandwe Game Reserve; and one by Mapesu Game Reserve. They have been relocated as per the guidelines of International Union for Conservation of Nature for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations.

These big cats were flown in by IAF’s C-17 Globemaster Cargo plane today morning from O.R. Tambo International Airport at Johannesburg on February 17. They landed at Air Force Station Gwalior today morning from where they were moved by Indian Air Force’s MI-17 helicopters to KNP.

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Watch: 12 Cheetahs from South Africa land in Gwalior on board IAF plane