MP: Kuno Cheetah Strays Out of National Park, Movement Being Monitored by Forest Team

Bhopal: One of the two cheetahs that were released into the wild in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district earlier this month has been found to have strayed out of the reserve forest and spotted advancing towards Ranthambore wildlife sanctuary in Rajasthan, official sources said on Monday.

The cheetah, believed to be Agni, was spotted near the polytechnic college in Sheopur district, around 25 km from the national park on Sunday afternoon, and was captured by some passersby in their mobile phone cameras.

“We cannot disclose the current location of the cheetah (for safety reasons). But the cheetah is safe and is being monitored round-the-clock by the monitoring team”, the field director of Kuno National Park Uttam Kumar Sharma told this newspaper on Monday.

A forest officer said that the cheetah may have strayed out of the core area of the national park to explore its territory.

Two cheetahs, Agni and Vayu, were released into the wild in the Kuno National Park on December six after remaining almost a year in the large enclosures.

Twenty-two other cheetahs including 12 cubs who have been kept in the large enclosures since last one year are going to be released into the wild in the national park in phases.

Eight cheetahs were brought to the Kuno National Park from Namibia in September 2022 in the first ever intercontinental translocation of carnivores under the cheetah introduction project in India.

Six months later, 12 more cheetahs were brought to the Kuno National Park from South Africa under the same project.

Several cheetahs in the national park have died while some female cheetahs gave birth to cubs in the last two years.

Kuno is now home to 24 cheetahs including 12 cubs.