BENGALURU: Karnataka may not have become home for the eight cheetahs that arrived with much fanfare in Madhya Pradesh last week. But Project Cheetah has a strong Bengaluru connect. Two seniors from the city, who are part of the ambitious project, have played a crucial role in bringing the cheetahs to India from Namibia.
Stationed in Kuno National Park since September 17 when the cheetahs were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday, the two experts are monitoring almost every move of the eight cheetahs and even assessing their dung and urine samples to check for any diseases, apart from who is roaming with whom and for how long.
Dr Sanath M, a former veterinarian at Bannerghatta Biological Park, moved to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and then to Delhi Zoo, before being roped in for Project Cheetah in 2021. Dr Sanath is working on the risk analysis.
He is accompanied by Bipin C M, senior project associate, who is leading the WII team in Kuno.Bipin is closely monitoring the movements and behaviour of the fastest mammals on the planet. Born in Kodagu and educated in Bengaluru, Bipin also worked with National Centre for Biological Sciences to study human-elephant conflicts in the Western Ghats before joining WII as project biologist for reintroduction of cheetahs in 2011.
Vets rubbish reports that venison being fed to cheetahs
Assessing the behaviour and adaptation of the cheetahs, the team members on Wednesday (the fifth day of their release in Kuno), said: “So far, their behaviour is normal and if the same continues, they will be released into the wild ahead of the stipulated time of 30 days.” The two, who already seem to have developed a strong affection for the cheetahs, say that the weather at Kuno is much better than in Namibia and other African regions and the animals have already started to feel relaxed.
“Even though the animals have a code ID number and radio collar number, yet for easy communication, each of them have been named. The males are Freddie, Elton and Oban, and the females are Asha (named by PM Modi), Siyaya, Tibilisi, Sasha and Savannah. While Sasha and Savanna are co-related, Elton and Freddie are like rock stars. Oban seems to be a more dominant male so far,” they observed.
The two rubbished reports that deer meat was being fed much to the anger of Bishnoi community. “We are feeding them buffalo meat at present as per international quarantine norms. The habitat where they will released has over 20,000 spotted deer alone, apart from wild boars, hare and four-horned antelope, a sufficient and healthy prey base for over 20 cheetahs to survive. A monitoring and review task force is being constituted to review their progress,”the team said.