Cheetah Strays Into Field Near Village Along Kuno National Park, Forest Dept Trying To Bring It Back — WATCH

A cheetah was spotted in a field near a village after it strayed from Kuno National Park, forest department is working to send it back into the wild.

Visual of Oban in the field after straying from Kuno National Park ( Image Source :Twitter | @ANI_MP_CG_RJ )

A cheetah was spotted on Sunday in an agricultural field adjoining a village near Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Oban, one of the eight cheetahs bought from Namibia in September last year strayed into the field some 15-20 kilometres from KNP, from the park's free range area where he was released last month, reported news agency PTI.

Sheopur divisional forest officer (DFO) P K Verma while talking to PTI said, "As per the signals from its collar device, the cheetah was moving towards the village from Saturday night. It is sitting at the spot and a police team is monitoring the situation and keeping villagers away. Forest department staff are trying to send it back into the park area."

A video in which staffers can be seen trying to coax Oban to get back to the forest premises has been doing rounds on social media.

Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh | Cheetah Oban, one of the cheetahs brought from Namibia, entered Jhar Baroda village of Vijaypur which is 20 kms away from Kuno National Park. Monitoring team has also reached the village. Efforts are underway to bring the cheetah back: DFO

(Video… pic.twitter.com/4iQAoB6tcz

— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) April 2, 2023

Till now, four out of eight cheetahs brought from Namibia to KNP in September 2022 were released into the wild (free range area) from hunting enclosures, reported PTI.

On March 11, Oban and Asha were released into the wild, while Elton and Freddie, also known as "rockstars" due to their names, were allowed to move into the free range area on March 22.

Out of the eight Namibian cheetahs that were brought to KNP as part of an ambitious reintroduction project of this species, five are female and three are male. Prime Minister released all of them inside special enclosures on September 17. Unfortunately, one of them named Sasha died of a kidney ailment on March 27 and on the other hand, Siyaya gave birth to four cubs first spotted on March 29.

In the second batch of the reintroduction project, a set of 12 cheetahs including seven males and five females were brought on February 18 from Namibia.