Bhopal:
A heartwarming video has emerged from Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park showing a female cheetah and her four cubs being offered water by a member of the team tracking the rehabilitation process of the animals.
The video showed a member of the monitoring team pouring water into a large metal bowl for the cheetahs. He then called out saying “come” in English and the cheetah – named Jwala – responded instantly.
Jwala, which is among those animals translocated from Nabimia under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Project Cheetah, approached him in a calm and friendly manner and started drinking from the bowl. Her cubs followed their mother, the video showed.
The Kuno Park is reeling from water scarcity due to which the officials are leaving no stone unturned to keep the animals hydrated. Jwala and her cubs had hunted goats before being filmed drinking water.
Cheetah Mitras, local wildlife volunteers, say the big cats have started recognising their voices and commands. Currently, at least 17 cheetahs are roaming freely in Kuno, actively hunting and expanding their territory.
Earlier this month, Jwala and her cubs had strayed out of the park for the first time, prompting villagers to attack them with stones when they preyed on livestock. They were later guided back safely by forest officials.
Project Cheetah aims to re-introduce the only large carnivore species that went extinct in independent India. It was launched in September 2022 when the first batch of eight cheetahs was brought to India from Namibia. In February 2023, a second batch of 12 cheetahs was flown in from South Africa.
