Cheetah from South Africa to land in India on Feb 18 through IAF plane

As many as 12 Cheetahs from South Africa will arrive on February 18 in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park after South Africa last month signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the re-introduction of Cheetahs in India to establish a viable cheetah population in the Asian country.

An official of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change told ANI on Condition of Anonymity said, "Yes 12 Cheetah from South Africa are expected to arrive on February 18 in the morning but an entire schedule for Darparter of time of Cheetah from South Africa is still not finalised but as per plan, 12 Cheetah is coming from South Africa on February 18."

An official of the Ministry further told ANI that this time Cheetah is coming by Indian Air Force plane and not through charted plane the first plane will land at Gwalior Airport and from there by Helicopter cheetah will be brought to Kuno National Park.

Earlier, eight cheetahs brought from Namibia were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kuno National Park on the occasion of his birthday on September 17, 2022.

Radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs and monitored through satellite. Apart from this, a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah keeps monitoring the location for 24 hours. As per MoU with South Africa, the initial batch of 12 cheetahs is to be flown from South Africa to India in February 2023. MoU terms are to be reviewed every 5 years.

Following the import of the 12 Cheetahs in February, the plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years.

The MoU on the reintroduction of Cheetah to India facilitates cooperation between the parties to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India; promotes conservation and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity is built, to promote cheetah conservation.

Under the ambitious project of the Indian Government-Project Cheetah- the reintroduction of wild species particularly cheetahs is being undertaken as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines.

India has a long history of wildlife conservation. One of the most successful wildlife conservation ventures 'Project Tiger' which was initiated way back in 1972, has not only contributed to the conservation of tigers but also to the entire ecosystem.

In 1947-48, the last three cheetahs were hunted by the Maharaja of Korea in Chhattisgarh and the last cheetah was seen at the same time. In 1952 the Government of India declared Cheetahs extinct and since then Modi government has restored cheetahs after almost 75 years.

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