BHOPAL: Namibian Cheetah Oban that strayed out of KNP on April 2nd was rescued from Sheopuri and brought back to the park, forest officials said on Friday.
Oban who managed to escape from the fencing was spotted in agricultural land in the Sheopuri district on Thursday evening near Bairad village bordering the district, said Kuno Wildlife Division District Forest Officer Prakash Kumar Verma. Adding that the feline was under surveillance Verma said that Oban also did his first hunt in the open. ” He killed a blackbuck as he was hunger’ Verma said.” An operation was launched four days later as no signals of the return were able to be traced. Verma however did not share the details of the operation. The big cat is now in the Palpur forest area of the park.
Meanwhile, on reports of another cheetah Asha moving out of the forests- The DFO said – she was wandering in the KNP reserve area and the team is constantly monitoring her movements.
So far 4 out of 8 Cheetahs brought to KNP under the intercontinental translocation project have been released from the bommas into the wild. Elton and Freddie were released on March 22 while Asha and Oban were released into the wild 10 days earlier. Sasha- out of the 8 died due to a kidney ailment on March 27th while Siyaya gave birth to four cubs.
Two batches of Cheetahs have arrived in India so far under the program launched by PM Modi in an attempt to re-introduce the extinct species into the Indian wildlife ecosystem. The first batch was released into KNP on September 17th last year. The second batch was brought to India in Feb this year.