A cheetah named Gamini recently became a mum to five adorable cubs at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Thanks to these precious additions, the number of cheetahs in India now stands at 26.
On March 10, Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, tweeted, “High Five, Kuno! Female cheetah Gamini, aged about 5 years, brought from Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa, has given birth to 5 cubs today.”
He added, “Congratulations to all, especially the team of forest officers, vets, and field staff who have ensured a stress-free environment for cheetahs, which has led to successful mating and birth of the cubs. The total number of cheetahs, including cubs in Kuno National Park, is 26. Gamini’s legacy leaps forward: Introducing her adorable cubs.”
According to the Press Trust of India news agency, the cheetah reintroduction project successfully released eight cheetahs (five females and three males) from Namibia into enclosures at the Kuno National Park on September 17, 2022. In February last year, 12 more big cats were brought to the park, this time from South Africa. The new cheetah mother was part of the second group.
There are now 13 cheetah cubs born in India. What makes cheetahs stand out from other big cats is that they ‘meow’ like their distant feline cousins, the domestic cat. In fact, they are the only ones among the big cats who can do so.
With the arrival of the cheetah, Kuno National Park has become an important destination for wildlife enthusiasts. In its exclusive forests of Kardhai, Khair and Salai, one can see wildlife foraging across vast meadows. Some grasslands here are bigger than most at the Kanha National Park or Bandhavgarh National Park, both of which are also in Madhya Pradesh.
The park started out in 1981 as Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area of about 350 sq km shaped like a leaf with the River Kuno forming its central spine. The river not only keeps the area supplied with water, but also gives the national park its name.
In the 1990s, the sanctuary was chosen to be the second home of the Asiatic lion, currently confined to the Gir National Park in neighbouring Gujarat. But with governments in Gujarat, loath to lose the state’s status as the only home of the lion, resisting the move to create a separate population of Asiatic lions to save them from any natural or genetic calamity, the project has failed to materialize so far. Meanwhile, the sanctuary was upgraded to a national park with the addition of about 400 sq km. The upgraded Kuno National Park now has 748 sq km of pristine forests and lies within the larger Kuno wildlife division, which has a total area of 1,235 sq km.
