MP’s Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary to be Third Home for Cheetahs
Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary has recently been rechristened as Veeragana Rani Durgavati Tiger Reserve
Bhopal: Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh will be the third home of Cheetahs in India.
When the cheetah project expansion takes place, Nauradehi will be the third home of the big cat, Uttam Kumar Sharma, field director, Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, told this newspaper on Sunday.
Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary has recently been rechristened as Veeragana Rani Durgavati Tiger Reserve.
Ten potential sites in seven landscapes in the five Central Indian states have been identified for cheetah introduction by an expert committee constituted to oversee the cheetah project.
The cheetah reintroduction project was launched in the Kuno National Park with relocation of eight big cats from Namibia to the wildlife sanctuary in September 2022 and subsequently 12 cheetahs from South Africa six months later, making it the first home of cheetahs in India.
On April 20 this year, cheetahs found their second home in Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh when two South African male cheetahs, Pavak and Prabhas, were shifted to the national park from Kuno.
Works are also going on in Banni grassland, Gujarat, to develop it as the fourth cheetah introduction site in the country.
The cheetah project aims at creating a viable metapopulation of the big cat in the country.
The seven landscapes identified as potential cheetah sites are Desert National Park, Rajasthan, Shahgarh Landscape, Rajasthan, Banni and Kachchh Desert, Gujarat, Kuno Landscape, Madhya Pradesh, Nauradehi Landscape, Madhya Pradesh, Sanjay-Dubri-Guru Ghasidas Landscape, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and Bagdara- Kaimur Landscape, Bihar, a senior forest officer said.
The latest News Letter titled ‘Second Home of Cheetahs- Gandhi Sagar’, released by the Kuno National Park, has detailed the reasons why Pavak and Prabhas were chosen to be shifted to Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary from Kuno.
‘Both the cheetahs are in their prime and most suitable to handle the new site. They have adapted well in Indian conditions and both have been progeny in Kuno National Park’, it said.
Pavak and Prabhas, both aged approximately six years, were brought to Kuno two years ago from Waterberg Reserve, South Africa.
Pavak has fathered four cubs of female cheetah Gamini’s second litter and Prabhas is father of recently born two cubs of female cheetah Veera.
Both the male cheetahs became fathers when they were in Kuno.
The shifting of Pavak and Prabhas from Kuno to Gandhi Sagar, primarily, signifies that India has now two cheetah meta populations and Kuno has got expertise to handle and manage cheetahs in all conditions, the News Letter said.
Kuno now has 29 cheetahs.
Cheetahs went extinct in India in 1952.
