Tag : Namibia

New Delhi (The Hawk): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release cheetahs being brought from Namibia in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on Saturday morning, an official said on Friday. He will arrive at the Gwalior airport from New Delhi at around 9.20 am and leave for Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district, about 165km away, where he will release cheetahs into quarantine enclosures at around 10.45 am, the official said. The special cargo plane carrying eight cheetahs from Namibia will land at the Gwalior airport in Madhya Pradesh at around 6 am on September 17, which is also Modi's birthday, said a senior police official. The felines will be then shifted to KNP in a helicopter. As per the earlier plan, the special plane carrying the big cats from the African country was to land at the Jaipur airport, from where they were to be flown to KNP, around 400km from the Rajasthan capital. The release of wild cheetahs by the prime minister in KNP is part of his efforts to revitalise and diversify India's wildlife and its habitat, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Thursday. The introduction of the fastest land animal in India is being done under Project Cheetah, which is world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project, the statement said. Cheetahs will help in the restoration of open forest and grassland ecosystems in India. This will help conserve biodiversity and enhance ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration and soil moisture conservation, benefiting the society at large, it said. After releasing cheetahs, Modi will take part in a plantation programme at Karahal in Sheopur district and later arrive in a local school to participate in a conference ...