MP: Cheetah Introduction Improves Grassland Habitat of Kuno National Park

Bhopal: The introduction of African cheetahs in Kuno National Park (NP) in Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh has helped improve the grassland habitat of the NP significantly, raising the prospects of boosting the herbivore population in the wildlife sanctuary.

The NP has now 12,000 hectares of natural grasslands.

The rich grasslands have helped in the stabilisation of the herbivore population in the sanctuary, leading to the significant improvement of the wildlife habitat, a senior forest officer of the NP told this newspaper on Tuesday.

“Cheetahs can survive and survive well in grassland as well as in woodland. Bringing cheetahs in Kuno NP has led to continuous improvement in grassland habitat of the national park and awareness about importance of grassland as wildlife habitat”, field director of Kuno NP Uttam Kumar Sharma told this newspaper on Tuesday.

Twenty five villages, situated in the core area of the wildlife sanctuary, were relocated leading to development of natural grasslands in the NP in a vast stretch of the sanctuary.

Besides, weeds, bushes and small trees were removed for the development of the grasslands in the wildlife sanctuary as a part of cheetah management project, the forest officer said.

The improvement of grasslands in the national park has caused stabilisation of herbivore population which has raised the prospect of boosting prey density in the wildlife sanctuary in coming years, Mr Sharma said.

Prey base in the national park was one of the key issues needed to be addressed by the officers involved in the cheetah management.

Although the national park has a sufficient prey base, the co-predators of the cheetah such as leopard were seen taking the lion share of the prey in Kuno, threatening to leave cheetahs in the lurch, another forest officer said.

The key herbivore species found in the national park included spotted deer, sambar, barking deer, four-horned antelope, blue bull, black buck and Indian bison.

The co-predators of cheetahs found in the national park included leopard, wild dog, striped hyena, Indian wolf, jackal, and Indian fox.

In the first ever intercontinental translocation of carnivores, eight cheetahs were shifted to Kuno NP from Namibia in September 2022 under the cheetah introduction project of India.

Five months later, 12 more cheetahs were trans-located to Kuno NP from South Africa under the project.

Several cheetahs including cubs, born in Kuno NP, have perished due to various reasons in the past two years.

The Kuno National Park now has 24 cheetahs including 12 cubs.