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Back in India after 7 decades; plane carrying 8 Cheetahs lands in Gwalior


Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Gwalior, Sep 17, 2022: Eight cheetahs from Namibia landed in Gwalior on Saturday, following which they they were flown to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on two Mi-17 aircrafts. The team that brought the big cats left for the national park on Chinook helicopters, while the animals were moved to Mi-17s as “Chinook’s noise could annoy the cheetahs".

 

Cheetah


The big cats are a part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven decades after it was declared extinct in the country. A modified Boeing aircraft, which took off from the African country Friday night, carried the cheetahs in special wooden crates during the around 10-hour journey.

The plane landed at the Gwalior airbase shortly before 8 am, an official said. They will reach Kuno National Park, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is celebrating his 72nd birthday, will release three of the cheetahs in quarantine enclosures of the park at 10.45 am in the presence of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and wildlife experts.

 


The animals are being flown from Gwalior to Kuno in Sheopur district, 165 km away, in Air Force helicopters, and the journey will take about 20-25 minutes, an official said. Officials battled heavy rain, inclement weather and some blocked roads to complete the preparations for Modi’s programme to release the big cats in their new home in Kuno. Two days before Modi’s arrival, heavy rain lashed the Gwalior-Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh.

An elated civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, welcomed the cheetahs to their “new heavenly habitat".

Before releasing the cheetahs into Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP), forest officials put last-minute touches on arrangements, inspecting enclosure, security arrangements, and instructing the local population on appropriate behaviour.

“India is one of those countries which believe in undoing ecological wrongs. A mistake should be rectified. Cheetahs became extinct in India due to overhunting. We have decided to bring the large carnivore back. This ecological wrong is being undone,” environment minister Bhupender Yadav said.

Two siblings and two close friends are among the eight wild cats. According to the Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which is monitoring the entire mission along with Indian authorities, the first batch includes two male siblings who were first spotted by their local staff in 2021.

Joining them is another male cheetah, albeit a year younger at around 4.5 years, who was born at Namibia’s Erindi Private Game Reserve in March 2018 – the same place where his mother was born.