Bhopal: Suspected poachers entered the Kuno National Park (NP) in Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh a couple of days ago, posing threat to cheetahs, official sources said on Wednesday.
They however fled the area after noticing the patrolling party in the forest, sources said.
Sources said that a group of poachers were spotted in the periphery of the NP by the local villagers.
They opened fire after noticing a patrolling party in the forest before fleeing the area, sources said.
“The incident might have taken place in the periphery areas of the national park. The patrolling party heard the sound of firing”, Kuno NP field director Uttam Kumar Sharma told this newspaper.
He however ruled out any threat to cheetahs, saying that the poachers are chased away by the patrolling parties whenever they try to enter the buffer zone of the reserve.
The Kuno NP is guarded by a 200 strong forest staff, he added.
Another senior forest officer of Kuno NP, requesting anonymity, said that as a matter of fact, poachers enter the reserve forests to poach the wild animals.
“But, in the case of Kuno NP, we cannot say that cheetahs are the target of the poachers”, he added.
Notably, two male cheetahs, Agni and Vayu, have been released into the wild in Kuno NP on December four, whereas the remaining 22 cheetahs, including 12 cubs, have been waiting to be released into the wild in phases.
The remaining 22 cheetahs have been left in the large enclosures in semi-wild condition since August last year following the death of three cheetahs due to septicemia caused by the maggot infestation.
Eight cheetahs were brought to Kuno NP from Namibia in September 2022 in the first ever intercontinental translocation of carnivores under the cheetah introduction project of the country.
Six months later, 12 more cheetahs were brought to Kuno NP from South Africa under the same project.
Some of the cheetahs have perished due to various reasons in the last two years in Kuno NP and some cubs were also born during the period.