12 South African cheetahs to land in India on 18 February
Twelve cheetahs from South Africa will arrive at Gwalior airport on a C-17 Globemaster plane on Saturday.
New Delhi: The environment ministry announced on Thursday that twelve cheetahs from South Africa will arrive at Gwalior airport on a C-17 Globemaster plane on Saturday. This comes five months after eight big cats from Namibia were brought to the country for the first time.
The second phase of the world’s first translocation of its kind will see these 12 cheetahs from South Africa join the others at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. On February 18, the new batch of cheetahs is expected to arrive at Gwalior Airport, where they will then be flown by helicopter into Kuno.
In an effort to “revive” their population after being declared extinct in the country in the 1950s, these cheetahs are being brought to India on an experimental basis. By diversifying their habitats and establishing metapopulations outside of the African continent, the project also aims to preserve the global cheetah population, which is estimated to be 7,000.
In accordance with international standards, they will remain in quarantine for at least 30 days upon arrival in India before being moved to larger enclosures.
