Special cargo jet bringing eight cheetahs from Namibia will land on Saturday morning in Gwalior rather than Jaipur as originally scheduled.
After big cats became extinct for 70 years, India is all set to reintroduce cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park. To complete the long-awaited project on PM Modi's birthday, special preparations have been made for both the aircraft that will bring the cheetah and the habitat where they will be living.
According to government sources, the special cargo jet bringing eight cheetahs from Namibia will land on Saturday morning in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, rather than Jaipur, Rajasthan, as originally scheduled. The big cats will then be moved to Kuno National Park, where they will be placed.
According to reports, a helicopter would transport the cheetas to the Kuno National Park (KNP) at 6 am once the plane lands at the Indian Air Force's (IAF's) Maharajpura airport in Gwalior. The national park is situated about 165 kilometres from Gwalior in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh.
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After landing at the main runway, planes can fly to the terminal building named after BJP leader and late Vijayaraje Scindia, which is linked to the Maharajpura airbase by a corridor. On September 17, the three cheetahs will be released into the park's quarantine enclosures as part of an intercontinental translocation operation that brought them to India from Namibia.
According to the original plan, a special aircraft carrying large cats from an African nation was to arrive at the airport in Jaipur, from where they would be transported to KNP, which is located around 400 kilometres from the capital of Rajasthan.
Talking to media on Friday, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) wildlife, J S Chauhan, said, "The cheetahs will arrive in Gwalior and from there they will be flown in a special helicopter to KNP." Five female and three male cheetahs will be brought from the capital of Namibia, Windhoek, to the airport in Gwalior, according to earlier statements made by officials.
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The cheetahs will be transported from Gwalior to the KNP helipad aboard an IAF Chinook heavy-lift helicopter, according to Chauhan. The five female cheetahs headed for India are between the ages of two and five, while the five male cheetahs are between the ages of 4.5 and 5.5, according to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international not-for-profit organisation with its headquarters in Namibia and committed in saving the fastest land animal.
The last cheetah in India died in 1947 in the Koriya (Korea) district of what is now Chhattisgarh, which was formerly a part of Madhya Pradesh. In 1952, the species was considered extinct in India. The "African Cheetah Introduction Project in India" was created in 2009, but the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a delay in the big cat's arrival, according to officials. The big cat was supposed to be introduced in KNP by November of last year.
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(With inputs from PTI)
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