Kuno National Park

Why in News?

Recently, Kuno National Park was in the news. The reason for this was the release of cheetahs brought from Namibia by the Prime Minister on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday.

In January 2022, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav launched an action plan to resettle the Kuno National Park cheetahs. In 2022, the Indian government drafted a 25-year plan for lion relocation within the state of Gujarat. On 17 September 2022, five female and three male cheetahs aged 4 to 6 years were brought from Namibia, Africa to Kuno National Park (Kuno National Park Cheetah).

Kuno National Park

Kuno National Park is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. This park was established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary with an area of ​​344.686 sq km (Kuno National Park Area) in the Sheopur and Morena districts (Kuno National Park Foundation). It was given the status of a national park in 2018. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forest area.

In the 1990s, it was selected as a potential site to implement the Asiatic Lion Reproduction Project. Its purpose was to establish a second population of lions in India. Between 1998 and 2003, approximately 1,650 residents of 24 villages were resettled at sites outside the protected area. Most of the residents located there were Sahariya tribal people. The villages were also home to Jatav, Brahmin, Gurjar, Kushwaha and Yadav people. An area of ​​924 sq km surrounding the wildlife sanctuary was added as a buffer zone for human settlements (Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary).

In 2009, the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary was also proposed as a potential site for the reintroduction of cheetahs in India. In December 2018, the state government changed the status of the wildlife sanctuary to Kuno National Park and increased the protected area to 413 sq km (Wildlife Sanctuary to Kuno National Park).

National Parks in India

The national parks in India are IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Category II protected areas. India’s first national park now known as Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand was established in 1936. Till 1970, there were only five national parks in India. India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 and Project Tiger in 1973 to protect the habitats of conservation-dependent species. At present, there are 106 national parks in India.

In addition, federal legislation was introduced in the 1980s to strengthen the protection of wildlife by giving them legal status. There are 105 existing national parks in India covering an area of 44,378 km2 (17,134 sq mi), which is 1.35% of the geographical area of the country (National Wildlife Database, Dec. 2020). In addition to the above, 75 other National Parks covering an area of 16,608 km2 (6,412 sq mi) are proposed in the Protected Area Network Report.  The network of parks will go up by 176 after the full implementation of the above report.

Kuno National Park Flora and Fauna

The vegetation of the protected area in this national park includes anogesus pendula forests and shrublands, Boswellia and butia forests, dry savanna forests and grasslands, and tropical riverine forests. The major tree species are Acacia Kechu, Salai Boswellia serrata, Tendu Diospyros melanoxylon, Palash Butia monosperma, Dhok Anogeissus latifolia, Acacia leucofloa, Ziziphus mauritiana and Ziziphus xylopyrus. Major shrub species include Gravia flavescens, Helicteres isora, hopbush viscosa, and Vitex negundo. (Kuno National Park Flora)

The main predators found here in the protected area are the Indian leopard, wild cat, sloth bear, dhole, Indian wolf, golden jackal, striped hyena and Bengal fox. The ungulates include chital, sambar deer, nilgai, four-horned antelope, chinkara, blackbuck and wild boar. (Kuno National Park Fauna)

First shift in the World

This is the world’s first project to relocate large carnivorous wildlife. On 20 July 2022, an agreement was signed between India and the Government of Namibia to bring cheetahs, these cheetahs were to be released in the quarantine enclosure of the park.

According to experts, the re-arrangement of cheetahs in India will be considered when the number of cheetahs here becomes 500. To meet this target, 8 to 12 cheetahs will be sent to India every year from South Africa and Namibia. Apart from this, the genealogy of cheetahs in India will also be involved in this. During this, a complete blueprint of the living standards including the living standards of cheetahs has been made based on international level standards.

Benefits

• Experts say that the Cheetah Rehabilitation Project will create tremendous opportunities for ecotourism in India.
• The Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary is just 100 km from Ranthambore National Park, which attracted 431,000 tourists in 2019.