MP Not In A ‘Hurry’ For Development Of Cheetah Corridor With Rajasthan
But the Madhya Pradesh government is yet to take any initiative in this regard, giving rise to the impression that the state is not keen on developing the cheetah corridor between the two states for fear of losing the feline to Rajasthan
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh seems to have developed a cold feet over the proposal to create a cheetah corridor between MP and Rajasthan, mooted to provide a bigger landscape for the feline.
The proposal was conceived at a meeting of chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, held here in June 2024 in connection with a river interlinking project.
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly undertake the cheetah corridor development project with the involvement of the Centre.
Sources said the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) of Rajasthan government Sikha Mehera has recently written a letter to her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shubh Ranjan Sen reminding him of the proposal to sign MoU between the two states to undertake the cheetah corridor development project.
However, no headway could be made in this regard so far, creating an impression that Madhya Pradesh is not keen to take up the project ‘at least for now’.
In fact, the Rajasthan forest department has already initiated steps to develop landscapes for the cheetah corridor on its side by engaging the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to conduct a survey for this, sources said.
But the Madhya Pradesh government is yet to take any initiative in this regard, giving rise to the impression that the state is not keen on developing the cheetah corridor between the two states for fear of losing the feline to Rajasthan.
Cheetahs from the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh had frequently strayed into the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan in the recent past being attracted by a good prey base in the reserve.
A senior forest officer of Madhya Pradesh however has however denied that the state is not keen on the project.
“We are not in a hurry to undertake the cheetah corridor project. It will be taken up at the right time”, the forest officer said, unwilling to be quoted. According to him, the development of the corridor will be essential when the cheetah population grows further.
The probable landscapes for the corridor cover 15 forest divisions in eight districts in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and they have to be identified first, he said. The project will take shape at the right time, he said.
Twenty cheetahs, eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa, were brought to Kuno under cheetah reintroduction project in 2022-2023. The cheetah population has grown to 31 now.
