After straying out of Kuno forest, cheetah Oban makes way to tigers’ territory inside Madhav National Park in MP

Sheopur (MP), April 18

After straying out of Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur, male cheetah Oban has ventured into the Madhav National Park in neighbouring Shivpuri district where two tigers were released recently, an official said on Tuesday.

He said a cheetah entering a neighbouring forest is a natural process and there is no plan for the rescue so far.

This is the second time so far this month that five-year-old Oban, one of the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia last year, has strayed out of KNP, which has a core area of 748 sq km, and its surrounding 487 sq km buffer zone.

According to a forest official, Oban is out of KNP since Sunday. Earlier, he had ventured out of KNP on April 2 and was rescued from Bairad in Shivpuri district four days later.

“Oban’s movements were recorded on Tuesday in Madhav National Park (MNP) in Shivpuri district,” said KNP’s divisional forest officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma.

In March this year, a tiger and tigress were released in MNP in a bid to revive the big cat population in the facility.

When asked if the presence of tigers in MNP may lead to a conflict, Verma said, “There are tigers in the (Madhav) national park, but this will not create any problems, as all animals can protect themselves considering the danger”.

While the eight cheetahs from Namibia were brought to KNP on September 17, a streak of 12 was brought from South Africa on February 18 this year. One of them died due to a renal problem.

The country’s last cheetah died in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.