Saturday 28 April 2012
The Indian government has approved a plan to reintroduce cheetahs in three parts of the country, paving the way for the animal to return to the country after it was hunted into extinction almost 100 years ago.
The project, which will establish sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, will cost around 30m rupees (£0.4m) in the first year itself and will displace more than 100 settlements.
Under the plan, around 3,400sq miles of drylands and grasslands will be turned into a natural habitat for the cheetahs. Residents living in the areas, including nomads, will be moved out to make way for the big cats.
Six cats will be placed in each site and the authorities hope their numbers could swell to around 50 within a decade.
The cheetahs will be brought in from Africa and Iran, where African cheetahs are bred in captivity, the Times of India reports.
The plan may take between 10 and 15 years to implement," a government spokesman said.
Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh area in Jaisalmer, in the northern state of Rajasthan, have been selected as the sites to house the animals.
Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said the reintroduction of the world's fastest land animal would "restore the grasslands" of India.
"The return of the cheetah would make India the only country in the world to host six of the world's eight large cats and the only one to have all the large cats of Asia," MK Ranjitsinh of Wildlife Trust of India told the Press Trust of India news agency.
The Asiatic cheetah vanished from India many decades ago after it was pursued by trophy hunters and herdsmen to the brink of extinction during the Raj.
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