Bhopal, Sep 05: At least seven helipads are being constructed in and around Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district where the cheetah reintroduction project will be carried out, and a team from South Africa is scheduled to arrive there on Tuesday, officials said.
The helipads are being constructed amid indications that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might arrive to inaugurate the ambitious project, under which cheetahs will be brought in from South Africa and Namibia.
Three helipads are being built inside KNP, while four are coming up outside the park for expected VVIP movement, a top official told PTI.
Asked if the prime minister would be inaugurating the project on his birthday September 17, the official did not confirm, saying that things will be clear soon.
Sheopur Public Works Department's executive engineer Sankalp Golya confirmed to PTI that the helipads are being constructed.
"We have not received any written official intimation that cheetahs were coming on September 17. We have not got any written official information that the prime minister was coming on that date," MP principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) J S Chauhan told PTI.
"In all likelihood, the cheetahs will arrive in KNP this month. But I can't confirm that they will land on September 17," he said.
Meanwhile, a team from South Africa (SA) is at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan at present and is scheduled to arrive in KNP on Tuesday, a forest official said.
South Africa is yet to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) draft for exporting cheetahs from there. Understandably, the team was coming down to KNP to clear some issues before sending the animals.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) dean and senior professor Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, who is playing an important role in the translocation plan, is also scheduled to reach KNP on Tuesday, an official said.
According to officials, cheetahs had been quarantined in Namibia and were ready to be flown to India. Last month, India was expected to lift the spotted animal from the two countries from South Africa, but the plan did not work.
The cheetahs will be kept in the enclosure for two to three months before being released into the wild, officials said.
Twelve cheetahs, including four to five females, have been vaccinated and quarantined for a month as part of preparations to airlift them to India, they said.
"Extensive hunting of cheetahs and habitat loss led to their extinction. The last three cheetahs were killed by the Raja of Korea in the forests that are now part of Ghasidas National Park," Ajay Dubey, founder secretary of Prayatna and wildlife expert, said.
The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
The 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' was conceived in 2009 and a plan to introduce the big cat by November last year in KNP suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
"The KNP has a good prey base for cheetahs. Experts from the WII also seconded the area. Madhya Pradesh was home to cheetahs earlier. Moreover, it has a good translocation record, as tigers were successfully reintroduced in Panna in 2009," an official said.