KUNO NATIONAL PARK (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Env and Eco)

Context: After almost five months of confinement in the boma (enclosure), four  cheetahs — three males and one female  have been released in the wild.

Kuno National Park

• Situated:  Between the Aravallis and the Madhav National Park, Kuno serves as an important wildlife corridor
• Establishment: It was notified as a sanctuary in 1981 and then upgraded to a national park in 2018. 
• Area: 750 kilometers of pristine wilderness.
• Vegetation: The tropical dry deciduous forest mainly consists of Anogeissus pendula (Kardhai), Senegalia catechu (Khair) Boswellia serrata (Salai), and associated flora.

Project Cheetah

• About: It is India’s cheetah relocation program. This is the first intercontinental reintroduction of a wild, large carnivore species.
• Began on: 17 September 2023
• Historic cheetah in India: Asiatic Cheetahs were once abundant in India but the last cheetah in the country died in 1952.
• Reintroduced cheetah: The animals brought from Namibia and South Africa are the Southeast African cheetahs.
• IUCN Status

oAfrican Cheetah: Vulnerable 

oAsiatic Cheetah: Critically endangered (Iran).