Namibia’s Cheetah Conservation Foundation (CCF) team will travel with eight cheetahs from South Africa to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on Saturday. The cheetahs will be first flown to Jaipur and then to Kuno. They have been vaccinated, fitted with satellite collars, and are currently in isolation at CCF Centre in Otjiwarongo. The cheetahs were selected based on an assessment of health, wild temperament, hunting skills, and ability to contribute genetics that will result in a substantial founder population. The eight cheetahs include three males aged between 2-5 years and five females aged between 4.5 to 5 years.
The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet is taking the eight cheetahs to India. The jet cabin has been modified to secure cages in the aircraft’s main cabin but will still allow vets to have full access to the cats during the flight. The customized jumbo aircraft is an ultra-long range jet capable of flying for up to 16 hours and so, can fly directly from Namibia to India without needing a stop to refuel. The flight will take off on 16 September, late at night. The cheetahs will fly overnight so that they will travel during the coolest hours of the day, arriving in Jaipur in the early morning. They will be landing in Jaipur on 17 September and on the same day they will be moved to Madhya Pradesh by helicopter. PM Narendra Modi will release the big cats into the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on his birthday on September 17.
Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh was chosen as the home of these cheetahs based on climatic conditions. Also, the trees, temperature, and weather of the park are very similar to the forests of Namibia. Apart from this, there is an ample amount of hunting and water arrangements for them in this national park. There is also a good number of chital, reindeer, and other herbivorous animals that cheetahs like to hunt.
India’s last cheetah died in Koriya, now in Chhattisgarh in 1948. The animal was declared extinct in India four years later. Cheetahs, one of the oldest big cat species with ancestors dating back to about 8.5 million years, were once widely dispersed throughout Asia and Africa. They now occupy less than nine percent of their historic range. Fewer than 7,500 cheetahs remain in the wild.
