Cheetahs are set to roam India for the first time since they were officially declared extinct in 1952.
- A flock of eight cats arrived from Namibia on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on Saturday.
- They will have to undergo a month’s quarantine before being released in a national park in central India.
- Cheetahs previously shared forests with other big cats such as lions and tigers but disappeared 70 years ago.
- They are the fastest land animals in the world, capable of reaching speeds of 70 miles (113 km) per hour.
- This is the first time a large carnivore is being moved from continent to continent and reintroduced into the wild.
- At least 20 cheetahs are coming to India from South Africa and Namibia, home to more than a third of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs.
- The first batch of eight – five females and three males, aged between two and six years – arrived from Windhoek in Namibia to the Indian city of Gwalior on Saturday.
PM Modi released Eight cheetahs at Kuno National Park
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has freed eight Namibia cheetahs from cages at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on the occasion of his 72nd birthday. This morning at around 8 am, a special aircraft carrying these cheetahs had reached Gwalior, from where they were taken to the National Park through an Air Force helicopter. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was present at the Gwalior airport and cheetahs were boarded in a helicopter under his supervision.
Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952
Cheetahs were last seen in India in the year 1948, but after that cheetahs were not seen and then in 1952, cheetahs were declared extinct. Cheetah is considered to be the fastest running animal in the world and comes in the category of wild cat. The government entered into an agreement with Namibia in the 1970s with a plan to reintroduce animal species that were included in the historical categories .
Cheetahs that came to India included five females and three males
The deal with Namibia included a cheetah breeding program. In such a situation, the government had decided to bring eight cheetahs from there. The eight cheetahs brought in as part of the first intercontinental mission include five females and three males. These cheetahs were brought from Namibian capital Windhoek in a special Boeing 747-400 cargo plane to Gwalior .Now they have been released in the National Park having an area of 1.15 lakh hectares.
How old are these cheetahs?
According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international non-profit organization based in Namibia, three of the eight cheetahs brought to India are between 4.5 and 5.5 years old and five females are between two and five years old.
For now, cheetahs will remain in quarantine
These cheetahs are not currently released in the Kuno National Park. For now, they will be kept in the Quarantine Zone for a month. A Madhya Pradesh official said that during a month these cheetahs will remain in their respective zones and will not be able to hunt. They will be given buffalo meat every second-third day. After a month, they will be sent to a zone of 500 hectares, where they will be able to live close to each other. They will be separated if needed.