Kuno National Park Unsuitable for 20 Cheetahs

• 04 Mar 2023

Recently, the wildlife scientists stated that the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, which currently hosts 20 cheetahs brought in from Africa, does not have enough prey to sustain all the animals.

• Eight cheetahs from Namibia and 12 from South Africa were transported to India between September 2022 and February 2023.
• The transportation was part of an initiative to reintroduce the cheetah species to India, where it had gone extinct in the early 1950s.
• There are about 20 chital, the cheetah’s main prey, per square kilometre available at the KNP, a sharp decline from the nearly 60 chital per square km that could be found in the park in 2014.
• This situation is concerning as it could lead to the death of the cheetahs due to starvation.
• Furthermore, political considerations have prevented the transfer of some cheetahs to the Mukundra Tiger reserve in Rajasthan, which has better habitat suitability.