PM Modi set to launch Cheetah project on his birthday on September 17

New Delhi, Sep 06: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to launch India's ambitious cheetah translocation plan at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district on September 17, when he turns 72.

At least seven helipads are being constructed in and around the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district where the cheetah reintroduction project will be carried out.

The helipads are being constructed amid indications that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might arrive to inaugurate the ambitious project, under which cheetahs will be brought from South Africa and Namibia.
Last month, India was expected to lift the spotted animals from the two countries, but the plan did not work.

The cheetahs will be kept in an enclosure for two to three months before being released into the wild, officials said.

Twelve cheetahs, including four to five females, have been vaccinated and quarantined for a month as part of preparations to airlift them to India.

The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.

The 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' was conceived in 2009 and a plan to introduce the big cat by November last year in KNP suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic.