Ajit Karn
The Union environment ministry announced on Thursday that twelve cheetahs from South Africa will arrive in India on Saturday, bringing the total number of big cats in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park to twenty.
The Union environment ministry announced on Thursday that twelve cheetahs will arrive in India on Saturday from South Africa, bringing the total number of big cats in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park to twenty.
The seven male and five female cheetahs that arrived on Saturday are the second group of big cats to arrive in Kuno, which was once home to Asian cheetahs more than a century ago.
The C-17 Globemaster Cargo plane of the Indian Air Force that will transport 12 cheetahs from South Africa landed at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport on Thursday evening and is scheduled to depart late on Friday, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.
“They will arrive in MP at 11 a.m. on Saturday from South Africa. MP CM Chouhan and Union minister for environment, forests, and climate change Bhupender Yadav will later release them into the quarantine enclosures (bomas),” said Ramesh Gupta, the state’s chief of forest force (HoFF).
Three male and one female cheetahs from Phinda Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal and Rooiberg Game Reserve in Limpopo Province have been identified for translocation (five male, four female).
According to South African experts, seven of the twelve cheetahs have been in quarantine for more than seven months, which may affect their reintroduction chances.
“The seven-month quarantine period could have a negative impact on the likelihood of a successful reintroduction, as the cheetahs would have lost considerable fitness, condition, and vigilance during this time,” said the unnamed expert. According to the expert, the other five cheetahs are healthy because they were recaptured in December 2023.
“The reproductive ability of the females would have been compromised, as fertility is diminished if females do not begin reproducing until later in life or if they go for long periods without reproducing. This has the potential to hinder their establishment in Kuno, according to cheetah metapopulation project leader Vincent Van der Merwe.
However, he added, “They are born in the wild and know what to do. They will gradually regain fitness and health, but it would have been preferable if they had only spent two months in boma…”
According to Indian officials, the cheetahs have undergone extensive health examinations and are fit for relocation.
“The extended period of captivity will have no effect on the cheetahs. The Namibian cheetahs were also in captivity, but after being released into a 6-square-kilometer predator-free boma, they now hunt properly and satisfy their hunger by killing herbivores that were completely new to them, according to SP Yadav, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
Upon arrival, the cheetahs will be quarantined for a month while their health is closely monitored, he added.
“Our objective is to establish a sustainable and viable meta population of approximately 40 individuals in India. “Project Cheetah will be deemed a success when we have a viable population of forty cheetahs and successful breeding every year,” said Yadav.
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Yadav said of the eight Namibian cheetahs living in Kuno, “They are marking or scratching on trees, and you can see them in groups, which indicates they are forming coalitions. They also hunt every 3 to 4 days…”
