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Inadequate space for cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park: former Wildlife Institute of India official
The Hindu
Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP), which has seen the death of two cheetahs in less than a month, has “inadequate space” for these felines brought from Africa, a former official of the Wildlife Institute of India has claimed. Two cheetahs out of the 20 felines died after being translocated to KNP from Namibia and South Africa over the last eight months.
Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP), which has seen the death of two cheetahs in less than a month, has "inadequate space" for these felines brought from Africa, a former official of the Wildlife Institute of India has claimed.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which is overseeing the ambitious cheetah reintroduction project in the country, has called a meeting in New Delhi on Monday in the wake of the death of two cheetahs out of the 20 felines translocated to KNP from Namibia and South Africa over the last eight months, an official said.
According to some experts, a cheetah needs about 100 square kilometre area for its movement. The KNP is spread over an area of 748 sq km and has a buffer zone of 487 sq km.
The Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) former dean Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, who was part of the cheetah project in the past, told PTI that KNP has “inadequate space” for these animals.
“A 750 sq km area alone is not sufficient...We have to make [more than one] cheetah populations and manage it like a metapopulation where you move animals from one place to another. It is very essential to establish a second, third population," he said.
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"Kuno is a protected area, but the landscape in which cheetahs can live in Kuno is spread over 5,000 sq km, which includes agricultural parts, forested habitats, communities living within the area," he said.
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