Mallika Dureja
South Africa will send 12 cheetahs to India for 8–10 years
India and South Africa have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which means that 12 cheetahs will be moved from South Africa to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in February 2023. Over the next eight to ten years, a dozen big cats will be moved each year.
The first dozen cheetahs were expected to come to Kuno, where they will join the eight cheetahs that were moved there from Namibia last year as part of the ambitious Project Cheetah. What was new was the agreement to keep doing this for the next “eight to ten years.”
The MoU has been in the works for a while, and on January 27, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) made it official by announcing it.
The MoU between India and South Africa
The ministry says that the first group of cheetahs will come in February. Officials had told PTI that nine of the 12 people were cheetahs that were quarantined at the Rooiberg Veterinary Services in Limpopo province and three others were cheetahs that were quarantined at the Phinda game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province.
As part of the MoU between India and South Africa, seven male and five female cheetahs will be brought in. Down to Earth said that in February, a group of Indian people would go to South Africa to bring 12 big cats to India.
The MoU had been in the works for a while, and in November, Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s minister of environment, forestry, and fisheries, approved India’s plan to move cheetahs. The South African president had to give the go-ahead for a formal agreement between the two countries.
#India and #SouthAfrica sign a MoU to introduce 12 African #Cheetahs annually over the next 8 to 10 year.
An initial batch of 12 cheetahs will be flown from South Africa to India next month. The cats will join 8 #Cheetah brought in India from Namibia last year. pic.twitter.com/aDIIG3WVeW
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2023
Wildlife experts were worried in December 2018 that the 12 cheetahs that had been chosen to be moved to India in July 2022 were getting weaker because they were stuck in South Africa in small enclosures called bomas because the MoU hadn’t been signed yet.
In a press release, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said that bringing back cheetahs to India “will have important and far-reaching conservation effects that will help achieve a number of ecological goals.”
Cheetahs were only found in India, but they died out in the 1950s because they had been overhunted and lost their habitat for so long.
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‘Sasha’ unwell
Meanwhile, one of the eight cheetahs brought in from Namibia and currently in an enclosure in Kuno, is unwell, and may possibly die, as per news reports.
Officials told Down to Earth on January 25 that Sasha, a five-year-old girl, showed signs of being dehydrated about four days ago. She is currently living in a quarantine boma in Kuno, away from the other cheetahs. She is being “constantly observed” and treated, according to J.C. Chauhan, the principal chief forest conservator of Madhya Pradesh, who was quoted by the news source.
Some reports say that Sasha has renal failure and that her chances of living are not good.
Cheetahs in the R-Day parade
Cheetah at one of the tableau. Extinct in India in the 1950s, India got Cheetahs from Namibia last year. This year India gets Cheetahs from South Africa. pic.twitter.com/gut7RGVDO5
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) January 26, 2023
On January 26, India celebrated its 74th Republic Day with a parade that included cheetahs. A model of a cheetah took a prominent place in the Central Public Works Department’s tableau, which also featured hornbills and other wildlife.
