Additional wildlife sanctuaries identified as possible second homes for the cheetahs in India

As per the latest update on the cheetahs at Kuno National Park, the state forest officials and wildlife experts have pointed out that Kuno National Park, the existing home of the cheetahs may not have adequate space for all.

Following this assessment, a decision was made to allocate additional homes for the cheetahs. For this, the forest officials and wildlife experts have identified other sites – Gandhisagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, and Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and Shahgarh Bulge in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

However, this is a long-term plan and will require some more assessment from the concerned state forest departments and wildlife experts. Further assessment will be made once the monsoon season gets over in the month of September. Till then, the forest officials will be keeping an eye on the established home ranges of these cheetahs.


This careful and planned relocation is done in order to establish metapopulation (a group of spatially separated populations of the same species). The plan is to slowly and carefully replicate the cheetah relocation to other parts of the country as well.



Recently, three out of the 20 relocated cheetahs have died. These cheetahs were introduced in India under Project Cheetah, the first transcontinental relocation project in Asia. If reports are to go by, the remaining cheetahs at Kuno National Park appear to be hunting for themselves and are displaying good health and their natural behaviour in the wild.


At present, some of these cheetahs are still in the acclimatisation camps. As per reports, out of the ones that are still in the acclimatisation camps, five will be released into the wild before the monsoon starts (in June).