Cheetah KOMG4 enters Rajasthan’s Karauli district from Madhya Pradesh

Cheetah KOMG4, which left Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, crossed the Chambal River and entered Rajasthan’s Ranthambore region on 10 November. It crossed via Gota Ghat and entered through Maharajpur Naka and the Karanpur range. Its locations were tracked in the Kanarda area and around Maharajpur Naka and Karanpur. The cheetah was in Karauli district, near the Sawai Madhopur boundary. Forest Department and Madhya Pradesh tracking teams were monitoring its movements, with the aim of tracking it and returning it to Madhya Pradesh.

Notable Points

• Court oversight of the cheetah introduction: On 28 January 2020, the Supreme Court allowed the introduction of Southern African cheetahs to a suitable Indian habitat as a trial. It set up a three-member committee to guide the National Tiger Conservation Authority and required progress reports every four months.
• Reported concern about cheetah space at Kuno: Scientists from Namibia raised concern that Kuno’s core and buffer areas could be too small to sustain 20 cheetahs, citing typical African cheetah territories of about 100 square kilometres. This was an attributed ecological concern, not a universal rule for every cheetah.