Mi-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force carrying the second batch of 12 Cheetahs landed at their destination at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
The big cats made their journey in a C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The aircraft landed at the Air Force Station in Gwalior today after a 10-hour long flight from Johannesburg in South Africa.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed gratitude and thanked PM Narendra Modi for increasing the number of cheetahs in Kuno National Park.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Environment and Forest Minister Bhupendra Yadav released these cats at the Quarantine Boma after they were brought to KNP from Gwalior around noon.
"The number of cheetahs is going to increase in Kuno National Park today. I thank PM Modi from the bottom of my heart, this is his vision. 12 cheetahs will be resettled in Kuno and the total number of cheetahs will be 20." ,
With these 12 members, the number of Cheetahs in the KNP has gone up to 20. "Cheetahs from South Africa have been kept separate," Divisional Forest Officer, Kuno, PK Verma told PTI from the spot. A project participant and expert had earlier said that these animals had started their journey to their new home thousands of miles away on an Indian Air Force transport aircraft from OR Tambo International Airport, Gauteng in South Africa. The transcontinental relocation of these fastest land animals – first from Namibia and now from South Africa – is part of the Indian government's ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme. The country's last cheetah died in 1947 in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
Earlier SP Yadav, head of the Cheetah project, said, "We are happy to announce that at 8.30 pm (local South African time), 12 cheetahs took off from Johannesburg airport on a C-17 Globemaster aircraft for Gwalior airport." Land at Gwalior airport on Saturday, February 18 at around 10 am."
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