India plans to import cheetahs that do not develop thicker winter coats — a primary factor behind severe infections in some cheetahs and the death of three of them, according to the head of the reintroduction project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Project Cheetah in India last year by releasing a group of big cats brought from Namibia into an enclosure at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on September 17. Project Cheetah marks its one-year anniversary on Sunday.
In an interview with PTI, SP Yadav, Additional Director General of Forests at the Environment Ministry, emphasised that the project’s focus in its second year would be on breeding these animals.
Yadav, also the chief of National Tiger Conservation Authority, said that the next batch of cheetahs will be imported from South Africa and introduced into Madhya Pradesh’s Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, which will be ready to welcome the spotted felines by the end of the year.
“It’s mentioned in the Cheetah Action Plan that Kuno has a carrying capacity of about 20 cheetahs. Right now, there are 15 cheetahs including a cub, and when we bring the next batch of cheetahs into the country, it will be in some other place. We are preparing two such sites in Madhya Pradesh, one is the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, and the other is Nauradehi. “The site preparation at the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary is going in full swing. I’m expecting that it will be completed by the end of November or December. Once we get the report of completion, we’ll go to the site, we’ll evaluate it from all preparation points of view. And after December, we’ll take a call on bringing cheetahs,” he said.
