Cheetahs Get 3rd Indian Home In Durgavati Reserve To Study Coexistence With Tigers, Leopards
The development facilitates an interesting observation and a study on the coexistence of cheetahs, tigers and leopards in the free range, a conservationist said.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh got its third cheetah habitat after Kuno and Gandhi Sagar when two cheetahs- one female and one male- were relocated to the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (VDTR) from the Kuno National Park (KNP).
The two cheetahs, translocated from Botswana, were released in the VDTR by chief minister Mohan Yadav in the afternoon, marking the expansion of Project Cheetah.
The development facilitates an interesting observation and a study on the coexistence of cheetahs, tigers and leopards in the free range, a conservationist said.
Kuno became the first home of cheetahs in India when eight cheetahs from Namibia and subsequently 12 others from South Africa were translocated to the KNP in 2022-23.
Nine cheetahs were relocated from Botswana to the KNP in February this year under the Project Cheetah.
One and half years ago, four cheetahs- two females and two males- were shifted to Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh in two phases from the KNP, making it the second cheetah habitat in the state.
The cheetah population has grown to 60, including 41 Indian-born ones, following the implementation of the Project Cheetah four years ago.
The VDTR, formerly Nauradehi Tiger Reserve (NTR), is the largest tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh, spanning roughly 2,339 sq km across Sagar, Damoh and Narasinghpur districts in Madhya Pradesh.
The tiger reserve is home to around 30 tigers.
It is also home to other wild animals such as leopard, sloth bear, striped hyena, and the Indian wolf.
“It will be interesting to see how cheetahs coexist with their predators, tigers and leopards, in the wild in VDTR. It would also be a learning experience for cheetahs”, a conservationist said.
“There is no natural cheetah-tiger coexistence in Africa because tigers are native to Asia, not Africa. The tigers in South Africa are held in captive facilities and are separated from cheetahs.
However, Asiatic cheetahs and tigers historically shared landscapes in India before the cheetah disappeared from the country. What is new is the opportunity to study how the African cheetahs introduced through Project Cheetah use a landscape occupied by tigers”, Susan E Yanetti, who is associated with the metapopulation initiative, told this newspaper.
However, entering a tiger reserve does not necessarily mean the cheetahs will encounter tigers immediately, she said.