Sheopur (MP): Eight cheetahs from Namibia landed right here on Saturday, as a part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven many years after it was declared extinct within the nation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who’s celebrating his birthday, launched three cheetahs in quarantine enclosures of the Kuno Nationwide Park in Madhya Pradesh round 11.30 am.
After the modified Boeing 747 landed on the Gwalior airbase at 7.47 am, the felines have been flown in two Air Power helicopters to Palpur close to the Park.
A viral video confirmed the crates carrying the cheetahs stacked in what was earlier the economic system part of the Boeing plane.
After the airplane landed at Gwalior, the bottom personnel have been seen serving to switch the crates, marked Dwell Animals, to the ready choppers.
The plane, which took off from the African nation Friday evening, carried the cheetahs within the particular wood crates throughout the round 10-hour journey.
Earlier than their flight from Namibia, the cheetahs, the quickest land animals on the planet, have been handled with a tranquilizer that lasts for 3 to 5 days.
The animals have been flown to the park in Sheopur district, 165 km away from Gwalior. The journey took about 20-25 minutes, an official stated.
The cheetahs remained with out meals throughout the transcontinental journey and might be given one thing to eat now that they’ve been launched within the enclosures, the official stated.
A dais was arrange within the Park underneath which particular cages carrying cheetahs have been saved and Modi, who turned 72 on Saturday, launched three of them in an enclosure by working a lever.
After that, different dignitaries launched the remaining cheetahs in different enclosures.
The cheetahs have been introduced in a particular flight of Terra Avia, an airline based mostly at Chisinau, Moldova in Europe that operates chartered passenger and cargo flights.
Officers battled heavy rain and inclement climate to finish the preparations for Modi’s programme to launch the massive cats of their new residence in Kuno.
Two days earlier than Modi’s arrival, heavy rain lashed the Gwalior-Chambal area of Madhya Pradesh.
The Kuno Nationwide Park is located on the Northern aspect of Vidhyachal mountains with an space of 344.686 sq km. It was named after a tributary of Chambal River, Kuno, a forest official stated.
The final cheetah died within the nation in 1947 in Korea district in current day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier a part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.
The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Challenge in India’ was conceived in 2009. A plan to introduce the massive cat within the KNP by November final yr had suffered a setback because of the COVID-19 pandemic, officers stated.
