PM Modi to visit Kuno National Park on his bday, to launch Cheetah reintroduction project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh on September 17 to launch the cheetah reintroduction programme, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Tuesday.

The cheetahs arriving from South Africa will be released in the national park in Sheopur district the same day, he said.

Before the Madhya Pradesh cabinet meeting at the secretariat here, Chouhan shared with his ministerial colleagues that the prime minister will arrive at the KNP on September 17, which is also the PM's birthday, to launch the ambitious cheetah introduction project, an official said.

The prime minister will also address a function of women self-help groups at Karahal in Sheopur, Chouhan said.

At least seven helipads are being constructed in and around the KNP for the expected VVIP movement, officials earlier said.

The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.

The 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' was conceived in 2009 and a plan to introduce the big cat by November last year in KNP suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

The KNP has a good prey base for cheetahs. Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India have also seconded the area, an official said. 

Madhya Pradesh had a good translocation record as tigers were successfully reintroduced in Panna in 2009, he said.