Cheetahs’ shift backs corridor plan: NTCA | India News
New Delhi: Amid reports of two leopards moving from Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) to Rajasthan’s Baran district, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Sunday said the move strengthens the strategic rationale for the proposed 17,000 sq km Kuno-Gandhi civilization inter-wall districts. Eight from Rajasthan and MP.Calling the inter-state movement a success story of India’s Project Cheetah, NTCA said it is actively coordinating with state forest departments and the cheetahs are under 24×7 GPS and radio-collar monitoring by an inter-state team.Sharing updates on the movements of Cheetah KP-2 and KP-3, authorities said KP-2 was tracked in the mangrove range of Baran, while KP-3 entered Banj Amli Conservation Reserve after traveling 60-70 km from KNP.“Both the animals are located about 6 km apart on either bank of the Parvati river,” it said, adding that field teams deployed from Kishanganj and Anta ranges were tracking them continuously.“Long-distance dispersal across landscape boundaries is a well-documented, natural territorial behavior among cheetahs. The Project Cheetah Action Plan clearly anticipates and provides for interstate movement within the Kuno-Gandhi Sagar metapopulation landscape,” NTCA said in its report to the Ministry of Environment.India currently has a thriving population of 48 cheetahs, including 28 cubs born in India. Nine adult cheetahs (six females and three males), obtained from Botswana, were released into the quarantine enclosure at KNP on 28 February. They were the third group of cheetahs to fly to India.
