MP: Kuno National Park gets 12 cheetahs from South Africa

The eldest of the twelve cheetahs that were flown into Madhya Pradesh from South Africa on Saturday to be housed in the Kuno National Park is an eight year-and-three-month-old male, while the youngest is a female which has completed two years and four months. The intercontinental translocation of these fastest land animals - first from Namibia and now from South Africa - is part of the Indian government's ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister for Environment and Forests Bhupender Yadav released these felines into the quarantine bomas after they were transported to the KNP from Gwalior around noon.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane carrying them in wooden boxes from South Africa had arrived at Gwalior airport around 10 am. From there, they were flown to the KNP in IAF helicopters.

These animals had embarked on a journey to their new home thousands of miles away aboard an IAF transport aircraft from the O R Tambo International Airport, Gauteng in South Africa shortly before midnight, a project participant and expert said earlier.

Hours after 12 cheetahs were brought to Madhya Pradesh from South Africa on Saturday, they were released into the quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district of the state.

The country's last cheetah died in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952. Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, the new home of African cheetahs in India, has enough space and an adequate prey base to house 20 to 25 such big cats, an official has said, as the little-known wildlife sanctuary basked in its new-found global fame.

With the addition of these 12 members, the count of cheetahs at the KNP has gone up to 20. These eight cheetahs are currently in hunting enclosures before being released into the wild

On September 17, eight cheetahs airlifted from Namibia -- five females and three males - were released in the Kuno National Park (KNP) with much fanfare, putting the sanctuary in Sheopur district firmly on the world map.