Cheetahs to be re-introduced in India after being declared extinct

Cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal which was declared extinct in India in 1952, to be re-introduced into the country in November this year at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

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The country’s last spotted cheetah died in Chhattisgarh in 1947 and it was declared extinct in the country in 1952.

Kuno, located in the Chambal region, is spread over an area of over 750 sq km and has a conducive environment for the cheetah.

According to the approved timeline sent to us by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change this week, the tentative budget outlay of the ‘Project Cheetah’ is Rs 1,400 lakh for this fiscal.

Cheetah is considered vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species, with a declining population of less than 7,000 found primarily in African savannas.

The Supreme Court last year set up a three- member committee to guide the NTCA on the cheetah re-introduction project. The panel has asked the WII to carry out a technical evaluation of all possible sites for the re-introduction of cheetah in the country.