MP: Female cheetah to be shifted to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary from Kuno National Park on Sep 17

Sheopur (MP), Sep 16 (PTI) Dheera, a South African female cheetah, will be shifted to the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur from her current home in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district of the state on Wednesday to mark three years of Project Cheetah in India, an official said.

The feline will get the new home five months after two South African male cheetahs were shifted to the same facility, he said.

The step coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday on his 75th birthday. He is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the country's first PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) park in the tribal-dominated Dhar district.

On September 17, 2022, the PM had released wild cheetahs brought from Namibia into an enclosure at the KNP. The big cats were introduced in India under Project Cheetah, which was the world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation initiative.

"Tomorrow, on September 17, an important milestone will be achieved to mark three years of Project Cheetah in India. A female South African cheetah - Dheera - will be relocated from the KNP to Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Mandsaur, further strengthening the country's efforts in conservation and wildlife revival," Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) R Thirukural told reporters on Tuesday.

In the first-ever intercontinental translocation of big cats, eight cheetahs -- five females and three males -- were brought from Namibia to the KNP on September 17, 2022. In February 2023, 12 more cheetahs, the fastest land animal, were translocated to the park from South Africa.

On April 20 this year, two South African cheetahs - Prabhash and Pavak - were shifted from the KNP to the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.

After Dheera's relocation, the KNP will be left with 24 cheetahs, including five females and three males. All of them are healthy and doing well, a senior official said. PTI COR MAS NP