An official said that on Sunday morning that a cheetah wandered into an agricultural field next to a village in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradeshs Sheopur district. One of the eight cheetahs introduced from Namibia in September of last year, Oban, strayed out of the parks free-range region last month, according to Sheopur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) P K Verma, and into a pitch near Baroda village, around 15-20 kilometres from Kuno National Park.“The cheetah started heading towards the village on Saturday night, according to signals from its collar device. It is parked there, and a police crew is keeping an eye on the situation and displacing the residents. Staff from the forest department are working to get it back into the park,” an official said. Forest department officials have also shared a video in which staffers of the forest department are trying to get Oban back to the forest.According to the forest department officer, so far, four out of eight cheetahs brought from Namibia to India in September last year have been released in the wild for hunting enclosers. The names of the four cheetahs who were allowed to move into the free-range area on March 22 are Oban, Asha, Elton and Freddie, they were also called rockstars by the people around them. On September 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released eight Namibian cheetahs into dedicated enclosures as part of an ambitious restoration effort for the species. There were five females and three males. On February 18 of this year, a group of 12 cheetahs, seven males and five females were brought in from South Africa. Sasha, one of them, passed away on March 27 due to kidney disease.Cheetah from Namibia gave birth to 4 cubs One of the cheetahs that were brought from Namibia, Siyaya gave birth to four healthy pups, which were first seen on March 29. A Shoepur forest official said, “It is a matter of happiness, Siyaya, has given birth to four healthy cubs, their mother, was among the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia.” The mother and cubs were fine and healthy. The forest official added, “The cubs are safe in the pre-release enclosure. When the mother cheetah will bring out the cubs into the open then we will know about their gender.” Meanwhile, Union Cabinet minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Bhupendra Yadav shared a video of four cubs born to Siyaya. Talking to twitter, Yadav said, “Congratulations, A momentous event in our wildlife conservation history during Amrit Kaal! I am delighted to share that four cubs have been born to one of the cheetahs translocated to India on 17th September 2022, under the visionary leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji.” Union cabinet minister in another tweet also wished the entire team. He tweeted, “I congratulate the entire team of Project Cheetah for their relentless efforts in bringing back cheetahs to India and for their efforts in correcting an ecological wrong done in the past.”Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expresses his happiness over the birth of four cubs from a three-year-old female cheetah-Siyaya. PM Modi congratulated the entire team of Project Cheetah. He tweeted and termed it, “Wonderful news.”20 Cheetahs shifted to India So far, 20 felines, eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa were brought to Kuno National Park since last September. Sasha, one of them, passed away on March 27 due to kidney disease, while Siyaya gave birth to four pups, which were first seen on March 29. On February 18 of this year, a group of 12 cheetahs, seven males and five females were brought in from South Africa.
