As per inputs by close sources, the aircraft to bring another batch of cheetahs from South Africa departed from Hindon Airbase today at around 6 am. The cheetahs would begin their journey to India on the IAF C-17 Globemaster from Johannesburg OR Tambo airport on Saturday morning and land at Hindon air base at 10 am local time, said Project Cheetah additional director SP Yadav interacting with the reporters.
The Cheetahs from Hindon airbase in Gwalior would be translocated to KNP in Mi-17 Helicopter the project director added.
12 cheetahs are being added to KNP along with the already present 8 bug cats that were brought to the park from Namibia in September last year. The latest batch includes five female and seven male cheetahs. They will be kept under one-month quarantine upon arrival.
Workshops will be held with cheetah experts on February 20 to discuss management issues.
These cheetahs from Africa are getting introduced in India under Project Cheetah, the first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project in the world. Asiatic cheetahs became extinct in India due to loss of habitat and excessive hunting. The last cheetah was seen in Koriya now located in Chattisgarh.