7 decades after they were declared extinct in India, plane carrying 8 cheetahs lands in Gwalior
Gwalior: Prime Minister Narendra Modi released three cheetahs that were brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. on Saturday, September 17. The event coincides with the birthday of the Prime Minister, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Earlier, eight cheetahs from Namibia landed here, as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven decades after it was declared extinct in the country.
The plane landed at the Gwalior airbase shortly before 8am, an official said A modified Boeing aircraft, which took off from the African country Friday night, carried the cheetahs in special wooden crates during the around 10-hour journey.
They were flown to Kuno National Park, where Narendra Modi, who is celebrating his birthday, released three of the cheetahs in quarantine enclosures of the park at 10.45am.
The animals were flown from Gwalior to Kuno in Sheopur district, 165 km away, in an Air Force helicopter, and the journey took about 20-25 minutes, an official said.
The cheetahs remained without food during the journey and will be given something to eat once they are released in the enclosures, an official said.
The cheetahs were brought in a special flight of Terra Avia, an airline based at Chisinau, Moldova in Europe that operates chartered passenger and cargo flights.
The Park is situated on the northern side of Vidhyachal mountains and is spread across 344 sq km.
Officials battled heavy rain, inclement weather and some blocked roads to complete the preparations for Modi’s programme to release the big cats in their new home in Kuno.
Two days before Modi’s arrival, heavy rain lashed the Gwalior-Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh.
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