Project Cheetah: Seven More Big Cats To Be Released In MP's Kuno National Park In June

Seven more cheetahs will be released into the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh by the third week of June.

Seven more cheetahs will be released into the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh by the third week of June.

Source : Getty Images (Representative photo)

Seven more cheetahs will be released into the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The Centre's high-level committee appointed to monitor the cheetah reintroduction programme, Project Cheetah, said on Wednesday that the seven big cats will be released in Kuno by the third week of June.

The announcement came three days after a cheetah was released in the Kuno National Park (KNP). At present, there are seven Cheetahs at the national park. The female cheetah, Neerva, from South Africa aged 3-4 years, was released into the wild from a larger enclosure at the KNP on Sunday evening, the national park's Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma said. So far, seven cheetahs have been released into the free-range so far, while 10 are still housed in larger enclosures, he said.

The decision about the release of remaining cheetahs into the wild will be taken by the steering committee constituted by the Centre. The committee members are scheduled to visit the KNP on Tuesday, the official said.

Eight Namibian cheetahs, comprising five females and three males, were brought to the KNP and released into special enclosures by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17 last year as part of an ambitious reintroduction programme of the species.

Later, 12 cheetahs — seven males and five females — were brought to the national park from South Africa on February 18 this year.

A high-level committee to look into the management of the project was formed after news emerged about the death of six cheetahs at Kuno National Park.

Three adult cheetahs and three out of the four cubs born to a female Namibian cheetah, Sisaya, have died in around two months at the Kuno National Park, prompting questions from several experts on the suitability of the habitat and wildlife management.

An office memorandum issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) said the high-level committee has been set up "to review, progress, monitor and advise on the cheetah introduction" to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the NTCA .