Bhopal: Central team bringing Cheetahs from SA to Kuno has only 1 MP officer

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): State wildlife officials have expressed disappointment after the 5-member central team, in charge of bringing Cheetahs from South Africa to MP, listed only one name from the home state.

The team is heading to South Africa on February 11^th, to bring 12 Cheetahs to the state’s Kuno National Park. The five tentative names in the list are: NTCA IG Amit Malik, DIG Rajendra Gadhwar, relative of forest DG-- Anish Gupta, ACF Kuno Amritanshu Singh and a doctor of Indian Animal Medical Research Institute.

The officials of the state wildlife have alleged ‘misuse of power’ by the central body. They said more names from Madhya Pradesh should have been announced as the Cheetahs are being brought to state's Kuno and the MP officials would have better know-how of the project.

“The name of the custom officer in the list has no connection with deporting the Cheetahs. This is misuse of money and power by the higher officials”, said an officer in the state wildlife department.

Citing a similar case from last year, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) wildlife, JS Chouhan told Free Press “Earlier in 2022, when the Cheetahs were translocated in Kuno, even then no official of the national park was in the list.”

He also added that the core founder of the Kuno National Park and the backbone of the Cheetah project, Dr YP Jhala was also not included in the main list.