Indore: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav will release two male cheetahs from Kuno in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Neemuch-Mandsaur on Sunday, making it the second home of cheetahs in India, Neemuch collector Himanshu Chandra said on Friday.
It’s the first translocation of cheetahs in India and marks phase-II of the cheetah reintroduction project to revive the population nearly eight decades after the species was hunted to extinction in the country.
With 16 cheetahs now prowling the wild in Kuno, Project Cheetah is ready for the next step — expanding the territory under the fastest feline’s pugmarks.
“CM Yadav will release the two cheetahs into a 16 sqkm enclosure within the Game Range West Sanctuary, Khimla, of Gandhi Sagar on Sunday,” collector Chandra said.
The collector, along with SP Ankit Jaiswal, Neemuch DFO S K Atode, Mandsaur DFO Sanjay Raikhere and officials from various departments have been hard at work to ensure the shift goes smoothly.
This includes construction of a helipad in front of the main gate of the cheetah enclosure, barricading within the enclosure, wire-fencing and security arrangements.
Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary spans across 368.6 sq km on the western edge of MP, bordering Rajasthan. The sanctuary stretches along both banks of the Chambal River across Mandsaur (187.1 sq km) and Neemuch (181.5 sq km) districts.