Madhya Pradesh: Kuno National Park To Get More Cheetahs, Tourist Safari To Begin From February

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday (10 January) said that more cheetahs would be arriving at the Kuno Palpur National Park in the state soon.

Eight cheetahs from Namibia were released into the park in September last year as part of an ambitious project to revive the extinct cheetah population in the country.

Speaking at the valedictory function of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention here, Chouhan said the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) attending the event should visit tourist attractions of Madhya Pradesh including its tiger reserves.

“I will call you to see the cheetahs in February. We are allowing (tourist visits) from February,” he said.

In September 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released African cheetahs flown in from Namibia into a special enclosure at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh.

In December 2022, an official informed that 12 more Cheetahs would be coming soon to KNP from South Africa.

The KNP is situated on the Northern side of Vidhyachal mountains with an area of 344.686 sq km. It was named after a tributary of Chambal River, Kuno.

The last cheetah died in India in 1947 in present day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.

(With inputs from PTI)