NEW DELHI: To curb illegal hunting and poaching in the Kuno-Palpur National Park (KPK) region of Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh government is going to launch a campaign to urge people to surrender their firearms.
Cheetahs reintroduction flagship project is going on in the KNP. Unconfirmed reports from different sources say that around two weeks back, there were a couple of poaching incidents noticed which alarmed the local forest administration and conservators and scientists who engaged in day-to-day Cheetah reintroduction project. It forced the government to take such historic steps to save Cheetahs.
“The MP state government is planning to start a movement soon to urge villagers and tribal people to surrender weapons and firearms,” said S P Yadav, Additional Director General (Project Tiger) and member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority, to The New Indian Express. He also looks after the flagship Cheetah reintroduction project.
“Some reports came to our notice that tribal people entered the forest in Kuno to hunt wild boars and other animals”, said Yadav. Project Cheetah has not received any separate budget in current year. The government has pooled in from other programmes and schemes.
On February 16, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate change, Bhupender Yadav told about the translocation of 12 Cheetahs (7 males, 5 females) from South Africa’s Phinda and Rooiberg wildlife reserves to Kuno National Park in India’s Madhya Pradesh on February 18. The cheetahs are aged between four months and 4 years.
Big cat project
Instead of separate budget allocation, MP govt pools funds from other programmes and schemes for Cheetah Project:
Project Tiger S P Yadav, Additional Director General looks after the flagship Cheetah reintroduction project. He is also member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority
National Tiger Conservation Authority Rs 38 crore
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority Rs 30 crore
Indian Oil Corporation Limited - CSR fund Rs 50 crore