The eight cheetahs, who were brought from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, have spent their Day 1 on Indian soil, with one of the wild cats stepping on to the grass, then running and scanning the surroundings. Out of the five females, one will be now called Aasha as suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who let three of the cheetahs lose at Kuno on September 17.
Aasha, who is almost four years old, was not given a name after she was brought to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). Namibia and the CCF, therefore, reserved the occasion of naming the female cheetah for PM Modi as his birthday gift.
Other female cheetahs are two years old Siyaya from south-eastern Namibia who was in CCF since September 2020. Another 2.5 years old Tbilisi was born at Erindi Private Game Reserve in the southeast city of Omaruru in Namibia in April 2020. The oldest is five years old Sasha who is a close friend of Savannah – a female cheetah from north-western Namibia.
Males include five years old Freddie, brother of Elton, who have been living in CCF’s private reserve since July 2021, and another 4.5 years old Oban who was born at Erindi Private Game Reserve in March 2018.
The PM clicked pictures with his DSLR camera from the high dais above the cage from which the cheetah had emerged into a special quarantine enclosure.
In his speech after releasing cheetahs, Prime Minister Modi cautioned that they need time to get used to their new surroundings before people can see them in the wild.
“Today, I also want to make a request to all countrymen. We will have to show patience and wait for a few months to see the cheetahs released in the Kuno National Park. Today these cheetahs have come as guests and are unaware of this territory. We have to give a few months’ time to these cheetahs to enable them to make Kuno National Park their home. India is trying its best to settle these cheetahs following international guidelines. We must not allow our efforts to fail,” he said.
Kuno National Park can house nearly 21 cheetahs, which can go up to 36. According to rough estimates, it will take around 15 years to reach a population size of 21 cheetahs, and around 40 years for the landscape capacity of 36 depending on the survival of the animal.
Madhya Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) JS Chauhan, closely associated with the cheetah reintroduction programme, said the translocation plan would be a great success. He said Madhya Pradesh has perfected the art of wildlife conservation and revival of animal species, citing the example of the Panna Tiger Reserve.
He said in 2009, the reserve was completely devoid of the big striped cats, but later it successfully implemented a tiger reintroduction programme and revived their population.
The eight cheetahs will be in giant quarantine enclosures in Kuno National Park for almost a month and later will be housed in acclimatization zones for two to four months before being released into the wild.
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