Latest news with #PrabhasandPavak
New Indian Express
01-07-2025
- New Indian Express
Namibian cheetahs' first home Kuno records 19 per cent tourist growth in 2024-25
BHOPAL: Tourist arrivals at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) – the first home of African cheetahs in India – have grown by 19% in 2024-25 compared to the previous year. Just a day before the park is closed for tourists as part of the annual July 1-September 30 monsoon closure – the KNP management released figures of tourist arrivals spanning between 2019-20 and 2024-25. The figures showed that the tourist inflow at the park grew by 19%, rising from 3,221 travellers in 2023-24 to 3,833 (including 21 foreign tourists) in 2024-25. As part of re-introducing the fastest moving animal on earth into the Indian wilds again – seven decades after it went extinct in the Indian forests due to rampant poaching -- 20 African cheetahs (from Namibia and South Africa) were introduced at the KNP in Sheopur district between September 2022 and February 2023. The tourist arrivals at the park which stood at 804 in 2019-20 grew by 12% to 903 in 2020-21. The numbers rose by 34% to 1,211 in 2021-22 and by 20% to 1,459 in 2022-23. The maximum surge in tourist arrivals, however, was reported in 2023-24, after the cheetahs were set free into the free ranging forests of the park located in the Gwalior-Chambal region of MP, Rajasthan. The tourist traffic grew by a massive 121% in 2023-24 to 3,221 tourists compared to the 1,459 total tourist arrivals at the park in 2022-23. The increase continued in 2024-25 also as the tourist arrivals grew by 19% to 3,833 tourists between Oct-June. Importantly, the park is open for the tourists annually from October to June and remains closed due to monsoon break between July 1 and September 30. Currently, there are 10 adult African (Namibian and South African) cheetahs and their 19 Indian born cubs at KNP. The Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in western Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district became the second home to the African cheetahs in India on April 20, after South African male coalition Prabhas and Pavak were moved there from the KNP.
New Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Five cubs born to African cheetahs at MP's Kuno National Park
BHOPAL: A week after the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in western Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district became the African cheetahs second home in India, the first home of the African cheetahs in the country – Kuno National Park (KNP) in MP's Sheopur district was blessed with the birth of five cheetah cubs on Sunday. The KNP reported on Sunday about a five-year-old South African cheetah, Nirva, giving birth to five cubs at her enclosure at the KNP. Sharing the videos of the five newborns on social media platform X, the union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav wrote on Sunday evening, 'In the lap of their mother Nirva -- the five-year-old brought from Mapesu Reserve in South African -- these cubs remind us of the beauty and resilience of nature. May they grow strong, swift and free, carrying on the legacy of their kind in India. Let us celebrate the hope and future they bring.' Posting the same videos on the same social media platform, the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav wrote, 'Welcome new guests to Kuno… It's a matter of great pleasure that the population of cheetahs is continuously increasing in the KNP. The arrival of these little cubs is a symbol of the success of the cheetah project and the rich biodiversity of India. The favourable environment created for wildlife conservation under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi is prospering today.' With the birth of five more cubs, the KNP now houses a population of 29 cheetahs, including 19 cubs and ten adults. The novel development at KNP was reported a week after a South African male coalition Prabhas and Pavak were shifted from the KNP to the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in the central Indian state's Mandsaur district -- consequently making the sanctuary the second home of African cheetahs in India.
