Bhopal, March 10 (IANS) Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary, which was renamed Rani Durgavati Sanctuary and covers the districts of Narasinghpur, Damoh, and Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, will soon become the third home of cheetahs in India, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said on Tuesday.​

The Chief Minister shared that preparations are almost at the final stage and that the Madhya Pradesh government will release some of the cheetahs from Kuno National Park (KNP) to Nauradehi in the next two months.​

“Project Cheetah is flourishing in Madhya Pradesh. The state government will also release cheetahs in Rani Durgavati Sanctuary (Nauradehi) in the next two months,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.​

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the nodal agency for India’s ambitious ‘Project Cheetah’, along with the other concerned authorities, had approved Nauradehi as the third home last year, and preparations were subsequently initiated.​

The expanse of Nauradehi is located on a plateau spread across Sagar and Damoh districts in the Bundelkhand region. While it has a deciduous forest with sal, teak, mahua, bamboo, and bel trees in abundance, there are also extensive, continuous grasslands that serve as grazing lands for herbivores, with a substantial prey base, including four categories of antelopes, and other animals such as wild boar.​

The forest department is also working to further augment this prey base by translocating cheetals or spotted deer from the Pench and Kanha Tiger Reserves.​

In 2010, Nauradehi was one of the priority sites considered for the reintroduction of cheetahs, but was later dropped owing to the large number of villages that had yet to be relocated within the sanctuary.​

Notably, the country’s total cheetah population crossed the half-century mark on Monday, with Namibian cheetah Jwala, aka Siyaya, giving birth to five cubs at Kuno, which has been the first home to African cheetahs in India since September 17, 2022.​

With the birth of five more cubs on March 9, the number of cheetahs in India – at KNP and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (both in MP) – has touched 53, which includes 33 cubs (all at KNP) and 20 adults from Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana.​

Out of a total of 53, three adult cheetahs – one male and two females – have already been released at Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary located in Mandsaur district in the state.​

–IANS

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