Cheetah re-introduction: How the big cats will travel without food during 16+ long flight

New Delhi, Sep 13: Eight cheetahs that are scheduled to arrive in India from Namibia on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17, will have to spend their entire air transit period empty stomach to avoid any complications.

The cargo plane bringing the big cats is scheduled to land at the airport in Jainpur between 6 am to 7 am on September 17.

The one-side journey of a passenger airplane from Windhoek (Namibia's capital) to New Delhi takes approximately 16 hours 40 minutes with a four-hour stop mid-way.

"Such a precaution is needed as long journey may create nausea-like feelings in animals leading to other complications," experts told PTI.

After shifting the cheetahs from the cargo plane to helicopter and completing other formalities, the animals will reach helipads in Kuno-Palpur after an hour-long travel.

The cheetahs will be first kept in small enclosures for a month and then in bigger ones for a couple of months for acclimatization and familiarisation with surroundings.

Later, they will be released in the wild.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release three of these cheetahs into the park's quarantine enclosures on September 17, his birthday, as part of the cheetah reintroduction programme, seven decades after the animal became extinct in India.

According to the protocol, the animals need to be quarantined for a month each before and after shifting from one continent to another.

The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.

The ambitious Cheetah re-introduction plan is seen as big boost to overall growth of the species.