Jaipur, March 9 -- The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Sunday reiterated the ecological importance of habitat connectivity across Rajasthan through the proposed Kuno-Gandhi Sagar inter-state wildlife corridor, after two cheetahs from Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park entered the state's Baran district. Taking cognisance of the movements of two cheetahs, KP-2 and KP-3, the NTCA, in an official statement on Sunday, said, "These movements reinforce the strategic rationale for the proposed 17,000 sq. km Kuno-Gandhi Sagar inter-state wildlife corridor spanning seven Rajasthan and eight Madhya Pradesh districts." Since 2022, the Centre, under Project Cheetah, has translocated 29 African cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa to India. These cheetahs reside primarily in MP's Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary. In November 2024, the Cheetah Project Steering Committee and the two states' governments discussed the possibility of developing the wildlife corridor for cheetahs to roam freely to develop their territories. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav and his Rajasthan counterpart, Bhajan Lal Sharma, also deliberated over the issue. The cheetah corridor project was part of Rajasthan's budget proposals in FY 2025-26. Rajasthan also requested the World Wildlife Institute to conduct a survey for the corridor. However, in September 2025, MP suspended the project. The Kuno-based African cheetah KP-2 was tracked in the Mangrol range of Baran on February 14, while its sibling KP-3 entered the Banjh Amli Conservation Reserve after travelling 60-70 km from KNP on March 2. Both animals are positioned approximately 6km apart on either bank of the Parvati River. "Both cheetahs are under 24x7 GPS and radio-collar monitoring by a joint inter-state team, with field teams deployed from the Kishanganj and Anta ranges," said NTCA. It further added, "Long-distance dispersal across landscape boundaries is a well-documented, natural territorial behaviour in cheetahs. The Project Cheetah Action Plan explicitly anticipates and provides for inter-state movement within the Kuno-Gandhi Sagar metapopulation landscape." Earlier, KP-2 also entered the area first on November 27 and returned to Kuno a month later. However, it returned on February 14 and is currently venturing inthe Mangrol forest range. Forest officials said that it is the fifth time in the last two years that a cheetah from KNP entered Rajasthan....