Action plan launched as cheetah ‘all set to return’, says Bhupender Yadav
🔴 “The cheetah that became extinct in independent India, is all set to return,’’ Yadav said while launching the Action Plan at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
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Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav (File)Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday launched the ‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India’, as efforts are under way to bring the world’s fastest cat back to the country after 70 years.
“The cheetah that became extinct in independent India, is all set to return,’’ Yadav said while launching the Action Plan at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
The cheetah is the only large carnivore to have gone extinct in India in the 1950s due to hunting and loss of habitat.
Now, with help from the Wildlife Institute of India and the Wildlife Trust of India, the ministry will be translocating around 8-12 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana – which have the world’s largest populations of the animal. The big cats will live at Kuno Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
Initially, in 2010, 10 sites were identified for the project. A reassessment of sites in 2021 by WII, however, found the 748-square kilometre Kuno Palpur National Park to be the most suitable for cheetah translocation in terms of habitat and an adequate prey base.
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