Male cheetah rescued from Sawai Madhopur district in Rajasthan, brought back to MP's Kuno

A male cheetah was successfully rescued from Sawai Madhopur district in neighbouring Rajasthan on Friday, a Madhya Pradesh forest department official said. The KNP management is grateful to the Rajasthan forest department for its support and cooperation in Fridays operation, he added.

A male cheetah was successfully rescued from Sawai Madhopur district in neighbouring Rajasthan on Friday, a Madhya Pradesh forest department official said. The big cat, christened KAP12, was safely transported to Kuno National Park here following the operation and released back into the wild, the official added. KAP12, which was first released into the wild on February 5 last year, had moved into a human-dominated landscape over the past few days, the official informed. ''Considering both the safety of the cheetah and the local population, a decision was taken to carry out its rescue. The KNP management is grateful to the Rajasthan forest department for its support and cooperation in Friday's operation,'' he added. Incidentally, on May 6, a male cheetah was rescued from Jhalawar in Rajasthan. Cheetahs, known to be the fastest animals on land, became extinct in India in the 1950s. Madhya Pradesh is the home of cheetahs since an ambitious reintroduction programme of the species was set in motion in 2022. Under the programme, eight cheetahs were translocated to KNP from Namibia in September 2022, followed by 12 from South Africa in February 2023. A third batch of nine cheetahs arrived from Botswana on February 28 this year.