Why it is in news?
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The Madhya Pradesh forest department has written to the National Tiger Conservation Authority to revive the plan to reintroduce cheetahs in the State’s Nauradehi sanctuary.
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The ambitious project, conceived in 2009, had hit a roadblock for want of funds.
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The country’s last spotted feline died in Chhattisgarh in 1947.
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Later, the cheetah ”” which is the fastest land animal ”” was declared extinct in India in 1952.
Money matters
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The M.P. forest department would need finances from the Centre for the project,NTCA a statutory body under the Union Environment Ministry had committed ₹50 crore to the State for it in 2011.
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The Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun had prepared a ₹260-crore cheetah re-introduction project six years ago.
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It was estimated that an amount of ₹25 crore to ₹30 crore would be needed to build an enclosure in an area of 150 sq km for the cheetahs in Nauradehi.
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The proposal was to put the felines in the enclosure with huge boundary walls before being released in the wild.
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Nauradehi was found to be the most suitable area for the cheetahs as its forests are not very dense to restrict the fast movement of the spotted cat.
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Besides, the prey base for cheetahs is also in abundance at the sanctuary, he added.
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According to the earlier action plan, around 20 cheetahs were to be translocated to Nauradehi from Namibia in Africa.
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The Namibia Cheetah Conservation Fund had then showed its willingness to donate the felines to India.
Source
The Hindu