Cheetah Reintroduction in India

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Cheetah sneaks out of Kuno National Park for second time this month

Male cheetah Oban has once again strayed out of Kuno National Park in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Monday, the development coming days after it had ventured out of the facility and was brought back post tranquilisation. 

Five-year-old Oban is out of KNP, which has a core area of 748 square kilometres, and its surrounding 487 square kilometre buffer zone since Sunday and is in neighbouring Shivpuri forest division, an official told PTI on the condition of anonymity. 

"It does not pose a threat to humans, nor do humans pose a threat to it. So there is no need for tranquilisation to bring it back. A close eye is being kept on its movement," he added. Oban is safe and secure, KNP Director Uttam Sharma told PTI, but refused to share details of its current location.

Oban, one of the eight cheetahs that were brought from Namibia on September 17, had strayed out of KNP on April 2, and was rescued from Bairad in Shivpuri on April 6. 

When asked whether this movement by Oban hinted at lack of space for these animals in KNP, Sharma said, "Nobody exactly knows how much space a cheetah needs given the fact that they went extinct more than seven decades ago. In fact, we are learning about them after their translocation (to KNP) from Namibia and South Africa." 


Brushing aside comments by some experts on the space needed by cheetahs to lead a fulfilling life in the wild, Sharma said "experts had claimed cheetahs can't breed in captivity but they were proved wrong as Siyaya gave birth to four cubs in March in KNP".

Deshdeep Saxena, wildlife expert and author of 'Breathless: Hunted and Hounded, the Tiger Runs for Its Life', however, said there was immediate need to develop 4000 square kilometres of landscape attached to KNP for cheetahs to move about.

"We are seeing the trait of cheetahs venturing out of the park when just four of them have been released into the wild. What will happen when the rest (15) will also be set free? These animals were raised in fenced game reserves in South Africa and Namibia and their outings pose a threat of man-animal conflict," Saxena opined.

While the eight cheetahs from Namibia were brought to KNP on September 17, a set of 12 were brought from South Africa on February 18 this year. One of them died due to a renal problem. The country's last cheetah died in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.

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