Modi’s 72nd birthday gift to Madhya Pradesh: Cheetah project worth Rs. 910 million
New Delhi: Cheetahs, the world’s fastest mammals, have been reintroduced to India.
Eight Cheetahs (5 females, 3 males) were brought from Namibia in a cargo flight that was a specially customised tiger-faced B747 jumbo jet. The flight landed in Gwalior this morning, after which they were taken to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, in a copter.
On his 72nd birthday today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released three animals into an enclosure spread over 10-km in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and wildlife experts. The PM released the felines by operating a lever that opened the cages.
According to Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international not-for-profit organisation head quartered in Namibia and dedicated to saving the fastest land animal, the five female Cheetahs are aged between two and five years, while the three males are aged between 4.5 and 5.5 years.
The Cheetahs were flown from Southern Africa for their reintroduction in India after the species was declared extinct in the country in 1952. Modi expressed his gratitude to the African nation of Namibia saying that it would have not been possible without their help.
“Project Cheetah, under which the Cheetahs were reintroduced in the country after they became extinct seven decades ago, is our endeavour towards environment and wildlife conservation,” he said, adding that, “21st century India is giving a message to the world that economy and ecology are not conflicting fields.”
“The citizens will have to show patience, and wait for a few months to see the Cheetahs released in Kuno National Park. Today, these Cheetahs have come as our guests, unaware of this area. We have to give a few months to these Cheetahs too to make Kuno Park their home,” he said.
The 750-square-kilometre (290-square-mile) protected park was selected as a home because of its abundant prey and grasslands. Another 12 Cheetahs are expected to join the fledgling Indian population next month from South Africa.
And as India gathers more funding for the Rs. 910 million project, largely financed by the State-owned Indian Oil, it hopes to eventually grow the population to around 40 cats.
Radio collars have been strapped on all the Cheetahs to be monitored through satellite. There is a dedicated monitoring team behind each Cheetah which will monitor their movements round-the-clock.
These cheetahs were in plenty when places like Mysore had rich forests. That was when the population of this country was mre 300 million. Within 25 years, this population doubled, and then within a few years trebled and then quadrupled.
Forests, the habitats of cheetahs and leopards have been destroyed, as more places are needed for housing.
India’s population about 1.4 billion, officially, but given the way, officials lie about the data, it must be atleast 1.6 billion, greater than Chinma and growing> Indians breed like rats, and Muslims using their personal laws acquire more than one wife and multiply their population many times. More forests will be destroyed and this imported meet the same fate as Indian cheetahs met.
Modi of all people should know. but this man want headlines in the media. Just a stunt.
Cheetahs are not forest animals. They are grassland animals and need flat open lands to chase down their prey. Mysore is not suitable for Cheetahs.
@George
Next you will say, they are like cows. You have seen films and hence ignorant. They do not live in open flat lands.
They are wild animals.
Hello George
You have seen them is films like animal conservation parks like Serengeti National Park in Africa.
You have not seen a forest -which is a piece of land with tress, grass and wild nature manifestation. Where do you
think wild elephants roam? Not on the trees, but on the land in the forest There are other wild animals too, such as deer and elk.
Cheetahs are wild animals whose habit is in such forest too. In Africa, there used to vast land masses like the above once-but no longer. Population explosion.
I simply balme Infosys Murthy, who created a new breed of young men who know nothing other than thumping keyboards doing program coding-typical IT techies, ready for his sweat shops to do the monotonous job that a western person would not do. He became rich , gave hundreds of millions as dowry to his daughter, and her husband, who could not hack it in Silicon Valley became a politician in Britain, stood to get elected as the PM, but was soundly defeated.
I.