Contest to be held to name Cheetahs: PM Modi

New Delhi, Sep 25: In his monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday a contest to name the Cheetahs that recently arrived in India a few days ago.

Addressing the nation through radio, PM Modi said "The topic that grabbed our attention in the last few days is the Cheetah. There have been a lot of messages talking about cheetahs. People from all corners of the country have expressed happiness over the return of cheetahs to India. 130 crore Indians are happy and full of pride; this is India's love for nature. A common question posed by people about this is "Modi ji, when will we get an opportunity to see the cheetahs?"

"A task force has been formed. This task force will monitor the cheetahs and see how much they have been able to adapt to the environment here. On this basis, a decision will be taken after a few months and then you will be able to see the cheetahs. But till then I am assigning some work to all of you. For this, a competition will be organized on the MyGov platform, in which I urge people to share certain things," PM Modi said.

"What should be the name of the campaign that we are running on cheetahs? Can we even think of naming all these cheetahs.... by what name should each of them be called? By the way, if this naming is of traditional nature, then it will be very nice since, anything related to our society and culture, tradition, and heritage, draws us easily. Not only that, but you should also share how humans should behave with animals! Even in our fundamental duties, emphasis has been laid on Respect for Animals. I appeal to all of you to participate in this competition. Who knows...you may be the first to get an opportunity to see a cheetah as a reward!," PM Modi added.

'Asha' is the name of one of the eight cheetahs, which were welcomed to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on Saturday. Well, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the name to the feline.

Asha means hope in Hindi and it is a meaningful name considering India hopes to increase the population of cheetahs with the arrival of eight from Namibia.

It has to be noted that except for 'Asha', other cheetahs have not been rechristened.