Ashish Ranjan
On Saturday, India welcomed 12 more cheetahs from South Africa, bringing the total number of cheetahs from South Africa to 18. The second group of cheetahs landed at the Gwalior air force base and were sent to Kuno National Park.
After a 10-hour trip from Johannesburg, South Africa, an IAF C-17 carrying the second batch of 12 Cheetahs has landed at the Air Force Station in Gwalior.
The Cheetahs were transported to the Kuno National Park by IAF helicopters.
Madhya Pradesh’s chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and environment minister, Bhupendra Yadav, will release the cheetahs into their quarantine enclosures.
An #IAF C-17 aircraft carrying the second batch of 12 #Cheetahs landed at AF Station Gwalior today, after a 10 hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa.
These Cheetahs will now be airlifted in IAF helicopters and released in the #KunoNationalPark. pic.twitter.com/Pk0YXcDtAV
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) February 18, 2023
Here’s everything you need to know about new arrival
1.Three years after India originally proposed the concept, twelve cheetahs, including five females, were flown in from South Africa. In January of 2022, India and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The forest department of South Africa announced on Twitter that 12 cheetahs will be relocated to India as part of an endeavour to extend the cheetah meta-population and restore the animals to the country.
2.The South African Department of Forestry posted a lengthy Twitter thread demonstrating how these cheetahs were darted and loaded into relocation boxes prior to being relocated to Kuno.Twelve cheetahs were transported onto an Indian Air Force Galaxy Globemaster C17 transport aircraft. They will be hydrated with intravenous drips, and their collars will be examined for proper fit.
3.The cheetahs will depart Friday evening from the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng for Kuno, according to PTI’s Bhupender Yadav. At KNP, ten quarantine bomas have been constructed for the twelve spotted cats.On February 20 at Kuno, a session involving worldwide cheetah specialists, biologists, veterinarians, and forest officials will be place.
4.On his 72nd birthday, September 17, 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released eight spotted felines, including five females, from Namibia into a quarantine area in Kuno as part of an ambitious Cheetah reintroduction campaign.
5.The African Cheetah Introduction Project in India was developed in 2009, but failed to get off the ground for more than a decade. The intention to bring the cheetah to Kuno by November 2021 was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
