Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): ‘Pavan’, the male cheetah, was released into the Nayagaon forest area of Kuno National Park on Thursday. With this the number of cheetahs released into the forest from their enclosures stands at four. Nayagaon forest area is part of Peepalwadi Tourism Zone.
While on safari, the visitors will have the opportunity of sighting cheetahs. On Wednesday, ‘Veera’ was released into Nayagaon forest area, while on December 17, two male cheetahs - Agni and Vayu were released into Parond forest area , which too is a tourist zone. The long wait for people to see cheetahs sprinting in the open grassland of Kuno has now ended. In the coming time, more cheetahs will be released into the open jungle so that they can survive on their own and also become a major attraction for tourists. There are fourteen adult cheetahs and of them four have been released into the wild.
Notably, a total of 20 adult cheetahs were translocated to Kuno National Park from Namibia and South Africa last year. Of them, six adult cheetahs have died due to sundry reasons. Some of them had died inside in the wild allegedly due to collar infection during monsoon, forcing the authorities to capture the remaining cheetahs and place them inside the enclosures for health check up. All the remaining cheetahs are healthy and hence the decision was taken to release them in the open under the watchful eyes of the officers.
