Sheopur, May 15 (IANS) Two female cheetahs from Botswana were released into the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, taking the total number of free-ranging cheetahs in the park to 16, officials said.

Field Director of the Cheetah Project in Madhya Pradesh said in a statement, “Today, two more Botswanan female cheetahs have been successfully released into the wild at Kuno National Park.”

The statement added that post-release monitoring of the cheetahs will continue through advanced radio telemetry and dedicated field teams to ensure their safety and successful integration into the landscape.

“All cheetahs are healthy and doing well in the wild,” it read. With the latest release, the number of cheetahs currently roaming free in Kuno has increased to 16.

The development came five days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Monday released two female cheetahs into the open jungle from their large quarantine enclosure at Kuno.

Brought to Kuno from Botswana on February 28 this year, they are part of a group of nine cheetahs from Botswana, which also includes four more females and three males.

The cheetahs from Botswana were brought to India as part of the third phase of the project.

The first batch of eight cheetahs from Namibia was released in Kuno by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2022. A second batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa arrived in February 2023.

Under the project protocol, cheetahs are initially kept in quarantine and then in larger soft-release enclosures at Kuno to acclimatise them to Indian conditions. They are released into the wild only after veterinary teams assess their health, hunting ability, and adaptation.

Notably, on May 12, four cubs born to India-born female cheetah KGP 12 a month ago were found dead in Kuno. The carcasses were partially eaten, indicating they might have been killed by a predator.

With the death of the four cubs, the cheetah population in Kuno has come down to 50, including 33 cubs.

Project Cheetah aims to establish a viable, free-ranging cheetah population in India. Cheetahs were declared extinct in the country in 1952 due to hunting and habitat loss.

–IANS

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