CHEETAH - ENVIRONMENT
News: Two of the 8 cheetahs in Kuno National Park released into acclimatisation enclosure
What's in the news?
● Two of the eight cheetahs inside the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh were on November 5 released into an acclimatization enclosure from the quarantine area where they were kept since their translocation from Namibia in mid-September, an official said.
Key takeaways:
● The eight cheetahs - five
females and three males in the 30–66-month age
group were released in the dedicated quarantine zones at KNP on September 17 at
a function by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, heralding the return of the big
cats to India 70 years after they were declared extinct in the country.
● As
per initial plans, the cheetahs - named Freddy, Alton, Savannah, Sasha, Obaan,
Asha, Cibili and Saisa were to be kept in quarantine for a month.
● According
to international norms, wild animals must be kept in quarantine for a month to
check the spread of any infection before and after their translocation to
another country.
● Since
their release on September 17, the eight cheetahs were housed in six 'bomas'
(enclosures).
● The last cheetah died in India in Koriya district in present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
Cheetah:
● The
cheetah is one of the oldest of the big
cat species.
● The cheetah is also the world’s fastest land mammal that lives in Africa and Asia.
IUCN STATUS:
● Asiatic
cheetah - Critically Endangered (CR)
● African Cheetah - Vulnerable (VU)
India: Cheetah - extinct in India
Reasons for the Extinction:
● Hunting
● Diminishing
habitat
● Non-availability
of enough prey - black buck, gazelle and hare - led to the extinction of the
cat in India (1952).
● The advent of climate change and growing human populations have only made these problems worse.
Reintroduction to India:
● Reintroduction
of a species means releasing it in an area where it is capable of surviving.
● Recently,
the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has launched the
‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah
in India’ under which 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next
five years.
● The
Ministry will also launch extensive awareness campaigns among the local
communities and villages, encouraging them to be stakeholders in the project.
● Kuno
Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh is the first site to host these
cheetahs.
● They’ll
be imported from Namibia.
● The main goal of Cheetah reintroduction project in India is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.
Facts about Kuno Palpur national park:
● Established
in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary.
● Flora
: Dry savanna grassland.
● Fauna
: Predators like Indian leopard, Indian wolf, Sloth beer, and Ungulates include
chital, Sambar deer, nilgai, four-horned antelope, chinkara, blackbuck.
● Most
of the inhabitants were Saharia tribal people.
● The
sanctuary derives its name from the Kuno, a tributary of the river Chambal;
this perennial river flows through the middle, bisecting the sanctuary.