Bhopal, Oct. 7 -- Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday expanded its cheetah conservation programme to the Bundelkhand region, with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav releasing two cheetahs into the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve, formerly Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary.
The reserve is now the state's and the country's third dedicated cheetah habitat after Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The male and female cheetahs, named Vyom and Neera and brought from Kuno in Sheopur district, were released into a 439-hectare soft-release enclosure, or boma.
They were earlier identified as Tholo and CCB-3. CCB-3 is the sister of Radha, a cheetah at Gandhi Sagar.
The Cheetah Steering Committee has approved the relocation of four cheetahs to the reserve, with two more expected later.
The boma has been divided into five sections and equipped with power fencing and round-the-clock tracking and monitoring systems to help the animals acclimatise before wider movement.
Spread across about 2,339 sq km in Sagar, Damoh and Narsinghpur districts, Veerangana Durgavati is Madhya Pradesh's largest tiger reserve.
Notified in 2023 after the integration of Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary, it has open forests and grasslands supporting prey such as chital, nilgai and chinkara, besides tigers, leopards and other carnivores.
The release coincided with the concluding day of Wildlife Conservation Week and followed the birth of five cubs at Kuno, taking India's cheetah population to 60, including 41 born in the country.
All are in Madhya Pradesh; Kuno will have 54 and Gandhi Sagar four after the relocation.
Launched in 2022, Project Cheetah seeks to establish a viable cheetah metapopulation after the species went extinct in India in 1952.
Yadav said the move would expand conservation efforts while enabling local communities to benefit from wildlife tourism.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.