Two cheetahs make their first kill at Kuno National Park

Sheopur, Nov 07: Two of the eight cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP), which were on Saturday released into an acclimatisation enclosure from the quarantine area, have made their first kill within 24 hours.

"Two cheetahs make their first kill within 24 hours of being released into a large enclosure in Sheopur's Kuno National Park," ANI quoted KNP Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma as saying.

He further said, "We released two male cheetahs into a large enclosure on Saturday after their quarantine. They were exploring and chasing animals since the beginning, adjusting to the environment. It's a great thing that they hunted. Our Cheetah Task Force decides the release of animals."

The officer on Saturday said that the remaining six cheetahs will also be released in the (acclimatisation enclosure) in a phased manner.

The eight cheetahs - five females and three males in the 30-66 month age group- were released in the dedicated quarantine zones at KNP on September 17 at a function by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, heralding the return of the big cats to India 70 years after they were declared extinct in the country. As per initial plans, the cheetahs- named Freddy, Alton, Savannah, Sasha, Obaan, Asha, Cibili and Saisa - were to be kept in quarantine for a month, PTI reported.

According to international norms, wild animals must be kept in quarantine for a month to check the spread of any infection before and after their translocation to another country, experts had said. Since their release on September 17, the eight cheetahs were housed in six 'bomas' (enclosures), two of which are 50 metres x 30 metres while the rest four measured 25 square metres in area. They were provided buffalo meat, the officials had said. The last cheetah died in India in Koriya district in present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.