Eight cheetahs from Namibia have been released into enclosures at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno national park by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven decades after it was declared extinct in the country.
The big cats were flown in a helicopter to their new home Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh where they were released.
Radio collar has been installed in all the cheetahs and will be monitored through satellite. Apart from this, there will be a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah who will keep monitoring location for 24 hours, officials said.
Here are the Highlights on Cheetahs' arrival:
Eight cheetahs from Namibia have arrived in their new home, Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, where they were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India.
The real estate rates in and around Kuno-Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district are going north as eight cheetahs from Namibia are set to be relocated in the region.
The special cargo plane carrying eight cheetahs from Namibia will land at the Gwalior airport in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday morning instead of Jaipur in Rajasthan as planned earlier and the felines will be then taken to the Kuno National Park where they will be released, official sources said on Friday.
The plane will arrive at Gwalior's Maharajpura airbase, operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF), around 5 am and by 6 am, the felines will be shifted to the Kuno National Park (KNP) in a helicopter, they said.