Watch | Cheetah Jwala, four cubs stray into villages near Kuno Park; videos show stick-wielding residents
Villagers recorded videos of the big cats even as a forest team tracking the animals tried to drive them away.;
Representative Image
SHEOPUR: A female cheetah and her four cubs strayed out of the Kuno National Park and reached nearby villages in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district on Monday, an official said.
Villagers recorded videos of the big cats even as a forest team tracking the animals tried to drive them away.
In some videos that surfaced on social media, cheetah Jwala and her four cubs can be seen near an under-construction railway bridge in the Virpur tehsil area, with several villagers armed with sticks standing at a distance.
A video showed one of the cheetahs trying to hunt a calf, but villagers and the forest team drove the big cat away.
The big cats were also spotted at farms in Telipura village. The forest team advised villagers to make way for the animals.
Additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF) and director of the cheetah project, Uttam Kumar Sharma, said the big cats strayed into the nearby villages.
People should not fear, instead make way for the animals, he said.
Sharma said the cheetahs were released in the forest at Ahirgate and had travelled 50 km west.
"Instead of surrounding the cheetahs or standing with sticks, villagers should watch them and allow them to pass. If a big cat kills cattle, the owner will be compensated," he said.
Jwala and her four cubs were released in the Ahirgate area on February 21.
After cheetah Gamini and her four cubs were released on March 17, the number of cheetahs in the wild at the KNP went up to 17, including 11 cubs, while nine are in enclosures.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the cheetah translocation project with the historic release of eight cheetahs five females and three males brought from Namibia to KNP on September 17, 2022.
This marked the first-ever intercontinental translocation of big cats.
In February 2023, 12 additional cheetahs were translocated from South Africa to the KNP.
The number of cheetahs in the KNP now stands at 26, including 14 cubs born on Indian soil. The ambitious project is part of India’s efforts to restore the cheetah population and enhance wildlife conservation and tourism in the region.