India’s First Cheetah Sanctuary
The recently created ‘Kuno-Palpur National Park’ in Madhya Pradesh will be the country’s first ‘Cheetah Sanctuary’. Although the plan to bring cheetahs to India has been in the works for more than a decade, the vision has come true only recently after the Supreme Court’s approval in January 2020.
The scientific name of the cheetah is Acinonyx jubatus, one of the oldest species of the big cat species. Traces of its ancestors can also be traced back to the ‘Miocene epoch’, more than five million years ago.
The cheetah is also the fastest land mammal in the world.
It is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red Listed Species.
Be aware that the last spotted cat in the country died in 1947 in Chhattisgarh. After this the cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952.
The Asiatic Cheetah is classified as a Critically Endangered species by the IUCN Red List. It is now speculated that it has survived only in Iran.
Source – The Hindu
