A new irrigation project threatens to displace both cheetahs and humans in Kuno
· Scroll
In April, an Indian-born cheetah, KP-2, walked several hundred kilometres from Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh to Rajasthan’s Ranthambore National Park.
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KP-2’s mother, Asha, was one of eight cheetahs brought to Kuno from Namibia in September 2022, as a part of India’s cheetah reintroduction project. Today, there are a total of 48 cheetahs in the country, including 28 Indian-born cubs – most of them, however, remain in enclosures in Kuno. Three are roaming free in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, which was developed as a second site for the cheetahs.
KP-2’s walk was not unusual – since their arrival, several instances have come to light of cheetahs who walked out of Kuno, and crossed the state border to Rajasthan in search of prey and mates. Experts argued that this pointed to a crucial problem with the project – that at 750 sq km, Kuno was far too small to host the planned population of 21 cheetahs, which are known to have large home ranges.
The same month that KP-2 was spotted in Ranthambore, another development came to light that could further reduce the home range of Kuno’s cheetahs. In April, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change granted environmental clearance to the Chentikheda irrigation project,...