Straying of Kuno's cheetahs bound to happen, already anticipated: Bhupender Yadav

India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav says cheetahs straying from Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park into Rajasthan is anticipated and part of a larger interstate conservation complex.

With recent incidents of cheetahs moving from Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park to Rajasthan, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday said their straying and exploration were bound to happen and were already anticipated.

The minister told PTI that the Cheetah Landscape in India 2024, an atlas published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), had already identified the Kuno-Gandhisagar-Ranthambore landscape as part of a larger interstate cheetah conservation complex.

''According to the atlas prepared by NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India, the Kuno cheetah landscape covers about 11,566 square kilometres of forested area, of which around 8,833 square kilometres lie in Madhya Pradesh and 2,733 square kilometres in Rajasthan,'' said Yadav.

''It also identifies nearly 6,800 square kilometres of contiguous forest habitat connecting these regions. Therefore, the entry of cheetahs into Rajasthan falls within the broader ecological landscape,'' he added.

The minister, however, highlighted that while the landscape has been scientifically mapped, substantial on-ground preparation is still required before cheetahs can safely establish themselves in these extended areas.

Long-distance movement can expose cheetahs to risks such as human-wildlife conflict, road and railway accidents, and shortcomings due to a lack of rapid-response infrastructure in the areas of straying and habitat fragmentation, according to the minister.

Yadav said, ''To mitigate these risks, authorities need to train field teams in these extended landscapes, improve monitoring and rescue logistics, establish effective green corridors, and strengthen connectivity measures.''.

Community awareness programmes and conflict-mitigation mechanisms are also essential to ensure safe dispersal and long-term conservation success for cheetahs in the region, he added.

On Tuesday, Yadav held a high-level meeting to review Project Cheetah, under which the cheetahs were flown in from Namibia and South Africa and released at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in 2022.

Subsequently, nine cheetahs were brought from Botswana and released at the national park. The current cheetah population stands at 53, of which 33 are Indian-born.

While Kuno National Park is the primary site for establishing the cheetah population, the Gandhisagar Wildlife Sanctuary, also in Madhya Pradesh, has been prepared as an additional habitat to support further expansion.

Preparatory work is also underway to expand the project to new areas, including the Banni grasslands in Gujarat.