Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave best wishes to Madhya Pradesh and all the countrymen on International Cheetah Day.
Cheetah is the new identity of Madhya Pradesh and is giving new impetus to other sectors including tourism,he said in a message on X.
We wish that all of us are committed to the conservation and promotion of cheetahs and that the number of cheetahs continues to grow, he added.
On 17th September, 2022 marked a history in the arena of wildlife conservation in India with the World’s fastest land animal finally back to India after almost 75 years of their local extinction from the country.
In the first ever intercontinental wildlife translocation and decades after extinction of their Asiatic counterparts in India, eight African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) from Namibia translocated into Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Subsequently, twelve cheetahs from South Africa were also translocated and released in Kuno National Park in February, 2023.
These cheetahs represent a big feather in India’s cap for restoring natural treasures.
The entire project was implemented under meticulous supervision of the expert team consisting of Government officials, Scientists, Wildlife Biologists and Veterinarians belonging to Namibia, South Africa and India.
The challenging inter-continental, wild to wild, Cheetah translocation by air, from Namibia and South Africa to India is first ever such effort undertaken in the world to rectify the ecologically wrong done in the past.
Normally intercontinental long distance cheetah translocations have inherent risk of mortalities, however, 8 Cheetahs from Namibia and 12 Cheetahs from South Africa were successfully translocated to the Kuno National Park without any mortality.
Most of the Cheetahs are adapting well to the Indian conditions and showing normal qualities like hunting, exploring the landscape, protecting their kill, avoiding/chasing other carnivores like leopards & hyena, establishing own territory, internecine fights, courtship and mating & no negative interactions with human beings.
One female Cheetah has given birth to cubs on the Indian soil after 75 years.
So far no cheetah has died due to unnatural causes like poaching, hunting, snaring, accident, poisoning, and retaliatory killing.
This has been possible due to huge community support from the local villages.
The Project Cheetah has mobilized the local community and provided them with livelihood options by direct and indirect employment.
The community support is overwhelming. Being a long term project, it is planned to bring 12-14 cheetahs from South Africa/Namibia/ other African Countries, annually for the next 5 years and after that, as and when required.
