MP minister to visit Africa on Mission Cheetah

BHOPAL: With the arrival of cheetahs getting delayed, Madhya Pradesh forest minister Vijay Shah has decided to visit Namibia and South Africa to get a glimpse of the cheetahs being brought to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary.

Shah will be accompanied by two IFS officers - head of forest Ramesh Gupta and APCCF (wildlife) Subharanjan Sen - on the weeklong tour starting August 22. Shah had told TOI on August 19 that the cheetahs will be in Kuno "anyhow" in November.

Union environment minister Bhupendra Singh was also scheduled to visit Namibia, but is awaiting approval from the PMO, sources say. The Indian government has refused to take three captive-bred cheetahs that were already in quarantine for translocation, insisting on wild ones that can hunt. Replacing them will take time. Also approval from Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is awaited. While the translocation is caught in bottlenecks, MP forest officers have started preparing a temporary helipad inside Kuno, with the help of PWD engineers.