Later this week, eight cheetahs from Namibia will depart from the capital Windhoek in a chartered flight and land in Jaipur on Friday. From there they will be transported in a helicopter and, after a 40-minute journey to the Kuno National Park (KNP), will be released on September 17 into a dedicated, ‘quarantine’ enclosure under the watch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials from the Union Environment Ministry said on Monday.
September 17 is Mr. Modi’s birthday and the release of the cheetahs are timed to mark it, Shivraj Chauhan, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh said last month.
The cheetahs will initially be in quarantine enclosures for about a month and then moved to 6-square kilometre, ‘predator-proof,’ holding facilities that will also host live prey. It will be a few months before the cheetah are released into the wild.
