New Delhi: India signed a memorandum of understanding, MoU, with southern African country Namibia for the reintroduction of cheetahs which were declared extinct in the country in 1952. A senior official from the environment ministry told news agency PTI that the first batch of cheetahs comprising four males and as many females will be brought to India in August. It is likely that they will arrive before August 15, another official was quoted in the report. The large cats will find their home in the Kuno-Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district.
Due to overhunting and habitat loss, the largest carnivore was completely wiped out from the country. The last spotted feline died in 1948 in the Sal forests of Chhattisgarh's Koriya district.
Meanwhile, Namibia has the world's largest population of cheetahs.
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The two countries will exchange expertise and capacities to promote cheetah conservation in their ranges. They will collaborate in areas of climate change, environmental governance, environmental impact assessments, pollution and waste management etc and undertake an exchange of personnel for training and education in wildlife management, including sharing of technical expertise, wherever relevant.
In 1952, during the first wildlife board meeting of independent India, a special priority was assigned to the protection of cheetahs in central India and a "bold experimentation to preserve the cheetah" was suggested, according to PTI.
Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh spread over 748 square kilometres, has an adequate prey base. It is devoid of human settlements, forms a part of the Sheopur-Shivpuri deciduous open forest landscape and is estimated to have a capacity to sustain 21 cheetahs.
Once restored, the larger landscape can hold about 36 cheetahs. The carrying capacity can be further enhanced by including the remaining part of the Kuno Wildlife Division (1,280 sq km) through prey restoration.
The action plan for cheetah translocations in KNP has been developed in compliance with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines and considering site assessment and prey density, current cheetah carrying capacity of the national park, among other criteria, the Union environment ministry said.
Financial and administrative support to the cheetah reintroduction programme in India would be provided by the ministry through the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
(With PTI inputs)