Cheetah travels from MP’s Kuno to Rajasthan; brought back home

A free-ranging female cheetah, Jwala, strayed from Kuno National Park into Rajasthan’s Sawaimadhopur district and was safely rescued under challenging conditions. Returned to KNP, she joins 26 cheetahs in the park, part of India’s ongoing cheetah reintroduction project from Namibia and South Africa

Sheopur: A free-ranging female cheetah, Jwala, strayed from its home in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park to neighbouring Rajasthan, about 100 km away, and has been rescued from there, officials said on Wednesday.

The cheetah crossed the inter-State boundary, moving amidst a human-dominated landscape, during the day time on Monday, a Cheetah Project official said.

---

Considering the safety of the animal and the people, a decision was taken to rescue the cheetah, the official said.

“On August 12, female cheetah Jwala was rescued from Kareera Kalan village in Sawaimadhopur district of Rajasthan, under challenging conditions. With an enormous crowd of onlookers, the cornered animal was rescued after darting,” the official said.

The animal had to be handled physically by the cheetah monitoring team, by pulling the goat kill made by the feline in an effort to confine it within an enclosure to prevent any conflict, the official said.

After the successful rescue, the animal has been shifted to the Kuno National Park (KNP), the official said.

The KNP management extends its gratitude to Rajasthan’s police and forest department staff for their support in the operation, the official added.

At present, the KNP has 26 cheetahs — 9 adults (6 females and 3 males) and 17 Indian born cubs. All are healthy and doing well, an official earlier said.

Out of 26 cheetahs, 16 are roaming freely in the wild and they have adapted well to the national park’s habitat, learnt to live with co-predators and are regularly hunting, the official added.

In addition, two male cheetahs shifted to the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary from the KNP were also doing well.

Eight Namibian cheetahs — five females and three males — were released into the Kuno National Park on September 17, 2022, marking the first-ever intercontinental translocation of these big cats, as part of efforts to reintroduce them in India.

Twelve more cheetahs were translocated from South Africa to Kuno in February 2023.