India welcomes 12 more cheetahs from South Africa
India brought 12 more cheetahs from South Africa. They were released into the quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur district of the state. An Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft carrying 12 cheetahs arrived in Madhya Pradesh from South Africa at 10 am Saturday.
The cheetahs were flown to Gwalior this morning, from where they were taken to the Kuno National Park (KNP) later. The cheetahs were released in KNP by Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The first set of eight from Namibia was released on September 17 last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the addition of these 12 members, the count of cheetahs at the KNP has gone up to 20. India’s last cheetah died in the Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between India and South Africa last year for the translocation of the mammals which is part of the Indian government’s ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme.
