2023-08-18 16:31:11
Personally supported by leader Narendra Modi, the operation launched a year ago is encountering difficulties. Of the twenty big cats imported from Namibia and South Africa, nearly half died.
New Delhi
September 17, 2022. It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday and the government has chosen this date to release the first cheetahs into Kuno National Park in the center of the country. Eight felines donated by Namibia were airlifted before being transferred to three army helicopters. Never had such an intercontinental project to reintroduce a beast been attempted. The cheetah was the hunting partner of Maharajas and Mughal emperors. Then it disappeared in the decades following independence.
Wearing a bush hat, camera slung over his shoulder, Narendra Modi activates a crank which controls a hatch. A first animal comes out, explores the surroundings with a wary air. « The cheetah has returned to Indian soil », says the Indian leader before adding that this return will promote biodiversity and ecotourism.
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Namibian cheetahs are quarantined. Then they are placed in “pens” of 50…
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