12 cheetahs to be flown in tomorrow

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

Six months after the historic translocation of eight cheetahs from Namibia, India is all set to welcome 12 more spotted cats from South Africa this Saturday. The 12 cheetahs, five of them female, will be brought to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh from South Africa. Indian Air Force’s largest military aircraft C-17 Globemaster has already left for South Africa this morning to ferry the cats.

A Madhya Pradesh Government official said that Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would release the cheetahs into their quarantine enclosures in the Kuno National Park, spread over 750 km in the state’s Chambal region.

Sources said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia are expected to be present on the occasion, though confirmation of their presence is awaited. Under the ambitious Cheetah reintroduction programme, PM Modi had released the first batch of eight spotted felines, including five females, from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at Kuno on his 72nd birthday on September 17, 2022. “A C-17 Globemaster of the Indian Air Force (IAF) took off from the Hindon airport at 6 am on Thursday to bring the 12 cheetahs from South Africa,” National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) head SP Yadav said during a press conference in New Delhi.

“The cheetahs will embark on the journey to Kuno from the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng on Friday evening. The transport aircraft will land at the Gwalior Air Force base in Madhya Pradesh at 10 am on Saturday. The forward journey will be covered in the IAF’s MI-17 helicopters,” he said.

The NTCA chief said 10 quarantine bomas have been created at Kuno for the 12 spotted felines. “Based on the experience with the cheetahs from Namibia, we have improved the bomas. These are even better than those in Namibia and South Africa,” he said. SP Yadav said that in South Africa, three of the cheetahs had been kept in Phinda quarantine boma in KwaZulu-Natal Province and nine in Rooiberg Quarantine boma in Limpopo Province.

A consultative workshop involving international cheetah experts, scientists, veterinarians, and forest officials will be held on February 20 at Kuno. The relocation of 12 cheetahs from South Africa comes three years after the idea was mooted by the Indian government. India originally initiated plans to bring the cheetahs there by mid-2022, but a delay in finalising a MoU between the two countries led to a postponement, with the animals continuing with their quarantine. The MoU was finally signed in January. A majority of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs live in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs. (With PTI inputs)

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