BHOPAL: Good news came from Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) as a new addition to the existing cheetah family was reported on Monday.
Just hours after arriving in London for a week-long UK and Germany tour, MP CM Dr. Mohan Yadav shared the news of the latest cheetah family addition on Monday evening.
“Fresh joy and happiness in Kuno. Today, the Cheetah Project has achieved a major milestone. In our Cheetah State, Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, a female cheetah, ‘Nirva,’ has given birth to cubs. The forest department will soon confirm the number of cubs. I extend my hearty congratulations and best wishes to all the forest workers involved in cheetah conservation for this achievement. May you continue to contribute to environmental conservation and ecological balance through your dedicated efforts,” the MP CM posted on the microblogging platform X.
Official sources at KNP confirmed the birth of cubs to South African cheetah Nirva and added that the exact number of newborns will be known by Tuesday.
Since March 2023, seventeen cubs have been born at KNP, the first home of African cheetahs in India since September 2022. Out of these, 12 have survived. The oldest of them, an 18-month-old female named Mukhi, was abandoned by its Namibian mother, Siyaya, shortly after birth in March 2023.
KNP currently houses 12 adult cheetahs and 12 cubs, all kept in enclosures.
More than seven decades after the fastest land animal became extinct in India due to rampant poaching, eight semi-adult and adult cheetahs from Namibia were reintroduced to KNP in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district on September 17, 2022. Five months later, in February 2023, a batch of 12 cheetahs was flown from South Africa as part of the same inter-continental cheetah translocation project.
Out of the 20 semi-adult and adult African cheetahs introduced, eight have died due to various reasons.
