New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released two of the eight cheetahs today in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The cheetahs were released from enclosure number one, after which another cheetah was released from the second enclosure about 70 meters away.
Wearing a fedora hat, the prime minister was also seen photographing the cats with a professional camera.
This historic mission called Project Cheetah marks the first time a wild South African cheetah has been introduced to another continent.
Project Cheetah was approved by the Supreme Court in 2020 as a pilot program to reintroduce the species to India.
The plane carrying cheetahs arrived shortly before 8 a.m. at Gwalior’s Maharajpura Air Base, operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia oversaw the scheme as the cheetahs were transported to the Air Force helicopter that flew them to Kuno National Park.
Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952, but today eight cheetahs, five females and three males have been brought from African Namibia to revive and diversify the country’s wildlife and habitat.
The eight cheetahs were brought into Gwalior on a cargo plane as part of an intercontinental cheetah translocation project. Later, Indian Air Force helicopters carried the cheetahs to Kuno National Park from Gwalior Air Force Station.
Radio collars are installed in all cheetahs that must be tracked by satellite. Apart from this, there is a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah watching their location for 24 hours.
The cheetahs, in turn, will help restore open forest and grassland ecosystems in India.
They will also help conserve biodiversity and improve ecosystem services such as water security, carbon sequestration and soil moisture conservation.