Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After receiving a backlash in the Cheetal annual report over low prey base, the officials of Kuno National Park have swung into action to increase the prey base. Kuno is expected to receive more than 1500 Cheetals from different tiger reserves in the coming days. A senior officer of the park told Free Press that the work of augmenting the cheetal prey base is underway.
Kuno is going to get cheetals from Pench Tiger Reserve, Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhav National Park and Kanha Tiger Reserve. “We have demanded 500 cheetals each from Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Madhav National Park. Likewise, Cheetals are also to be received from Pench Tiger Reserve. Some cheetals have been received from Pench and Kanha indeed,” he said.
The officer said that the old Kuno area has a cheetal density of 18 per square kilometers. The rest of the area is having poor density of cheetals. The deputy director of Pench Tiger Reserve, Rajnesh Singh said that three hundred more Cheetals are to be sent to Kuno. “We are having the highest density of Cheetals across the country,” he claimed.
Kuno comes with Cheetal Boma facility
To ensure that there is no shortage of cheetals in future, the Kuno officials have constructed a Cheetal Boma in an 80 hectare area. Talks are underway to keep 30 to 50 Cheetals inside the Cheetal Boma for breeding purposes. The numbers of Cheetals increase in due course will be released into the open areas of Kuno.
Kuno having huge deficit of prey base
The current population of Cheetal in Kuno National Park is about 6700. Seeing the high density of Leopards and Cheetahs, the latest Cheetah annual report had stated that 91 leopards and 12 adult cheetahs would require 23,660 and 3120 prey animals respectively. With the current population of Cheetal (6700) and other prey, there is a huge deficit of prey in Kuno National Park. It is after this adverse remark made in the Cheetah project report that Kuno officials are making the efforts to get as much cheetals.
