Sheopur: Another leopard has been taken out from the special enclosure made for Cheetah in Kuno National Park of Madhya Pradesh. Forest workers have succeeded in ousting another leopard that is roaming in a special enclosure made for keeping cheetahs in Kuno Palpur National Park. After bringing cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia, they will be kept in a special enclosure spread over a radius of five kilometers for their adaptation. In fact, five leopards had entered this special enclosure for cheetahs in the past, out of which two were removed earlier and one last week.
Sheopur Divisional Forest Officer Prakash Verma said on Tuesday that after intensive patrolling by forest personnel on Monday, the fourth leopard was released from the enclosure area, while efforts are on to trace the fifth leopard and get it out of the enclosure soon. Huh. Cheetahs are expected to arrive at KNP from South Africa and Namibia as part of the ambitious relocation project, although the exact date of their arrival has not been fixed. Cheetahs became extinct from India in the year 1952. The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ has been going on since 2009 which has gained momentum in recent years. India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Namibia for the import of cheetahs. Verma said that for the purpose of surveillance, eight cages and more than a hundred trap cameras were installed in and outside the enclosure.A source in the forest department said trained elephants and drummers have also been deployed to ensure that the leopards are thrown out of the special enclosure before the cheetahs arrive. Verma said that there is enough prey available in the enclosure for the cheetahs. Although the date of arrival of the cheetahs is not known at the moment. He said that work is going on on war footing and Public Works Department is preparing two helipads in KNP. These cheetahs will have to travel a long way from South Africa and Namibia to reach Madhya Pradesh and will take time to adapt to the environment here. The cheetahs to be relocated had their first health check-up in the first week of August by a team of international experts from the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia.
