BHOPAL, October 10 — The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in technical collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII, Dehradun), on Saturday unveiled the Phase-2 operational roadmap for 'Project Cheetah', approving the readiness of Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh as India's second cheetah reintroduction habitat after Kuno National Park.
According to the ecological audit conducted by the Cheetah Project Steering Committee, Gandhi Sagar—situated along the northern boundary of Mandsaur and Neemuch districts bisected by the Chambal River—has completed 64 square kilometers of predator-proof acclimatization bomas, veterinary trauma centers, and prey-base augmentation (reinforcing chital and chinkara populations). A fresh batch of founder cheetahs sourced from South Africa and Kenya is scheduled for translocation to Gandhi Sagar by late 2026.
Officials highlighted that Kuno National Park currently sustains a thriving population including 17 Indian-born cubs, demonstrating successful adaptation to Indian semi-arid savannah regimes. Reintroducing the apex grassland predator serves as an umbrella conservation catalyst to restore degraded open forest and scrub-grassland biomes across central and western India.
The ecological mechanics of Project Cheetah (launched in 2022 as the world's first inter-continental large carnivore translocation), morphological and conservation status distinctions between the African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus, IUCN: Vulnerable) and Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, IUCN: Critically Endangered, CITES Appendix-I), the statutory authority of NTCA under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, and Chambal basin geography are high-yield themes for UPSC Civil Services (GS-I & GS-III: Biodiversity Conservation).