A specifically designed B747 jumbo tiger face plane has landed in Namibia’s capital to transport eight cheetahs to India’s Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where the wild cats faced extinction in the 1950s. The High Commission of India in Windhoek tweeted on Wednesday, “A special bird touches down in the Land of the Brave to carry goodwill ambassadors to the Land of the Tiger,”
The cargo plane will transport eight cheetahs, five females and three males, to Jaipur, Rajasthan, on September 17 as part of an intercontinental translocation study. They will subsequently be airlifted from Jaipur to their new habitat, Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district.
On his birthday, September 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release these cheetahs into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park.
The plane carrying the cheetahs to India has been adapted to allow cages to be secured in the main cabin while still allowing vets full access to the animals during the voyage. It has been painted with a tiger image.
The aircraft is an ultra-long range jet capable of flying for up to 16 hours, allowing it to fly directly from Namibia to India without stopping to refuel, which is critical for the cheetahs’ well-being. Cheetahs will have to spend their entire flight empty-handed, according to a senior Indian forest department official on Tuesday.
A precaution like this is necessary because a long voyage can cause nausea in animals, which can lead to other difficulties. Large carnivores have been extirpated from India due to their usage in coursing, sport hunting, overhunting, and habitat destruction. In 1952, the government declared the cheetah extinct in the country. The last spotted feline was discovered in the Sal jungles of Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district in 1948.
Starting in the 1970s, the Indian government’s efforts to reintroduce the species to its historical habitats in the country resulted in the signing of a contract with Namibia, which contributed the first eight individuals to kick off the Cheetah reintroduction programme on July 20 this year.