Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After two to three years, the third generation of cheetahs will be moving in the forests of Kuno National Park and its nearby regions.
However, only a few of them will be radio-collared for monitoring purposes and rest of them will move in the jungles without the devices.
At present, 30 cheetahs are radio-collared in Kuno and of them 18 are in the wild. Field director of Kuno National Park Uttam Sharma said cheetahs would be released in the wild without a radio collar in future.
It is even mentioned in the Cheetah Action Plan. In future, only a few cheetahs will be radio-collared for monitoring.
After three years, the Cheetah Project will enter its seventh year and by that time, cheetahs will get adapted to the environment.
“Even in tiger reserves, only a few tigers are radio-collared and rest tigers move without a radio collar and same will happen under Cheetah Project as well,” Sharma added.
Costly affair
The tracking of one radio-collared cheetah is a costly affair. The cost of one radio collar is Rs 4 lakh and its life span is only one year. After one year, the radio collar needs to be replaced with a new one.
All the radio collars are imported. Along with this, one tracking device costing Rs 3 lakh is used to track the radio-collared cheetah. Nine forest personnel are deputed to track every radio-collared cheetah and one vehicle is given to them.
19 cubs to be one-year old
After March 2027, 19 cheetah cubs will become one year old in Kuno. In the coming time, several female cheetahs will reach reproductive age. Hence, radio-collaring the entire growing population of cheetahs will be impossible in future.
