Madhya Pradesh

• 17 Jan 2024

Cheetah Dies at Kuno National Park

Why in News?

Recently, another Namibian cheetah dies in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.

• This is the tenth death among cheetahs brought from South Africa's Namibia in 2022.

Key Points

• Cheetahs have been extinct in India for around 70 years. Project Cheetah is an initiative to reintroduce the species into the country.
• According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), this is the first intercontinental reintroduction of a wild, large carnivore species.
• The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), a non-profit organisation in Namibia, was invited by the government of India to participate in a programme to reintroduce cheetahs to India.
• The then MoEF shared the first overview of Project Cheetah in September 2010.
  • This outlined the current status of cheetahs around the world, the benefits and complexities of reintroducing cheetahs into India, and areas where they may be reintroduced, along with information about the task force.
  • In January 2020, the Supreme Court approved the pilot programme to reintroduce cheetahs into the country.
  • In July 2020, India and the Republic of Namibia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), where the Namibian government agreed to donate the eight felines to the programme.
• Five female and three male Southeast African cheetahs between the ages of four and six were brought to India and kept in quarantine in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh.
• In February 2023, 12 more cheetahs were brought from South Africa to expand on the project. The MoEFCC further planned "to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years,"

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF)

• The CCF is a research and lobby institution in Namibia concerned with the study and sustenance of the country's cheetah population, the largest and healthiest in the world.
• Its Research and Education Centre, located east of Otjiwarongo.
• The CCF was founded in 1990 by conservation biologist Laurie Marker who won the 2010 Tyler Prize for her efforts in Namibia.

Kuno National Park

• Kuno National Park which is located in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district is home to several cheetahs translocated from Namibia and South Africa.
• Project Cheetah in India formally commenced on September 17, 2022, to restore the population of cheetahs, which were declared extinct in the country in 1952.