Namibian Cheetah Pavan to Stay in Enclosure, Shifting to Bigger Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary Underway

Male cheetah Pavan, who escaped from Kuno National Park twice, will be kept in an enclosure and moved to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary.

 

The male Namibian cheetah named Pavan, who had before escaped from the Kuno National Park twice, will now be kept inside an enclosure for a longer period of time.The forest authorities have no immediate plans to release Pavan back into the wild and are instead planning to shift Pavan and other cheetahs to the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, which is situated on the northern boundary of Mandsaur and Neemuch.

Cheetahs might be shifted to Gandhi Sagar sanctuary

The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife), JS Chouhan, stated that some cheetahs might be shifted to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary after receiving permission from higher-ups. The work to develop Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary for the accommodation of cheetahs is currently underway. Compared to Kuno National Park, the enclosure in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary will be much bigger, with a size of 8,000 hectares. Kuno National Park, on the other hand, has enclosures with an average size of 80 to 90 hectares, and the size of the enclosure in Gandhi Sagar will be 16 times bigger than the ones in Kuno. Within a year, Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary will be ready for cheetahs.

Pavan will share its enclosure with two female cheetahs in Kuno

Pavan and other cheetahs will get vast land to take big leaps and run around once they are inside Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary. After being brought from the border of Uttar Pradesh, Pavan has been kept along with two female cheetahs inside the enclosure in Kuno. The Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetahs in India indicates that Kuno National Park has the capacity to sustain 21 cheetahs. However, a forest official stated that Kuno has already reached its saturation level for cheetahs and there is a possibility that some of the females in Kuno may become pregnant, leading to an increase in the cheetah population. Therefore, it is necessary to shift cheetahs in excess from Kuno to Gandhi Sagar or Nauradehi Sanctuary.