Project Cheetah update: Flight from Namibia to land in Gwalior on September 17

Project Cheetah: A special Boeing 747 plane that landed in Namibia to get African Cheetahs back to India will now land in Gwalior instead of Jaipur as PM Narendra Modi will release the animals on his birthday.

Image: Twitter

A charter cargo flight operating a Boeing 747 with special tiger livery that landed in Namibia on September 15 to bring back Cheetah to India after 70 years under the Project Cheetah will now land at the Gwalior Airport. The flight was earlier supposed to land in Jaipur on September 17. From Gwalior, IAF operated Boeing Chinook helicopters will take the Cheetah to the KUNO National Park in Sheopur, said SP Yadav, Project Cheetah chief. PM Narendra Modi will release Cheetahs in their new home in Madhya Pradesh on his birthday on September 17. 

The Cheetah Reintroduction Project is first-of-its-kind transcontinental mission under which a total of eight Namibian Cheetahs will be brought back to the Indian territory after being extinct for over 70 years. Five female and three male cheetahs will head for India in a customized Boeing 747-400 jumbo aircraft from Namibia's capital Windhoek, travelling overnight and reaching Gwalior on the morning of Saturday, September 17.

A special bird touches down in the Land of the Brave to carry goodwill ambassadors to the Land of the Tiger.#AmritMahotsav #IndiaNamibia pic.twitter.com/vmV0ffBncO

— India In Namibia (@IndiainNamibia) September 14, 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release eight cheetahs being brought from Namibia into the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The large carnivore got completely wiped out from India due to their use for coursing, sport hunting, overhunting, and habitat loss. "A special bird touches down in the Land of the Brave to carry goodwill ambassadors to the Land of the Tiger," the High Commission of India in Windhoek tweeted.

The government declared the cheetah extinct in the country in 1952. Starting in the 1970s, the efforts of the Indian government to re-establish the species in its historical ranges in the country led to the signing of a pact with Namibia, which is donating the first eight individuals to launch the Cheetah reintroduction programme, on July 20 this year.

They will then be flown to their new home -- Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh -- in helicopters. According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), an international not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Namibia and dedicated to saving the cheetah in the wild, the five female cheetahs are aged between two years and five years, and the male cheetahs are aged between 4.5 years and 5.5 years.

In-flight safety of Cheetahs

According to the CCF, the aircraft bringing the cheetahs to India has been modified to allow cages to be secured in the main cabin but will still allow vets to have full access to the cats during the flight. The aircraft is an ultra-long range jet capable of flying for up to 16 hours and so can fly directly from Namibia to India without a stop to refuel, an important consideration for the well-being of the cheetahs, it said.

Eight officials and experts will oversee the Namibian cheetahs during the mission, including Prashant Agrawal, High Commissioner of India to Namibia, Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, chief scientist for Project Cheetah and Dean of Wildlife Institute of India; Sanath Krishna Muliya, veterinarian, Union Environment Ministry; Laurie Marker, CCF Founder, and Executive Director; Eli Walker, CCF conservation biologist and cheetah specialist; Barthelemy Batalli, CCF data manager and Ana Basto, CCF veterinarian.

With agencies inputs