A cheetah at Kuno National Park, in Sheopur. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI
India plans to import cheetahs that do not develop thicker winter coats — a primary factor behind severe infections in some cheetahs and the death of three of them who were relocated from Africa to India, according to the head of the reintroduction project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Project Cheetah in India last year by releasing a group of big cats brought from Namibia into an enclosure at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on September 17. Project Cheetah marks its one-year anniversary on Sunday.
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In an interview with PTI, S.P. Yadav, Additional Director General of Forests at the Environment Ministry, emphasised that the project’s focus in its second year would be on breeding these animals.
He asserted that the radio collars cheetahs were made to wear did not cause any infections. However, authorities have decided to replace these…