Madhya Pradesh: Escaped Namibian cheetah ‘Oban’ brought back to Kuno National Park

Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 7 (ANI): ‘Oban’ – one of the male Namibian cheetahs, that escaped from the boundaries of Kuno National Park, and was spotted in a village near Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district five days back, has been brought back to the Kuno National Park, officials said on Friday.

The Namibian cheetah was rescued from the forest of Shivpuri district on Thursday evening. “Oban was caught around 4-5 pm from the forest area near Bairad village bordering Shivpuri district and has been released to Kuno National Park’s Palpur forest,” Kuno Wildlife Division District Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma said.
‘Oban’ is one of the Cheetahs which were brought from Namibia that were released into the wild of Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh.
Officials said that it strayed out of Kuno National Park and reached Jhar Baroda village on April 2, about 20 km from the national park on Wednesday.

They said that it was under surveillance. Even after four days when Oban showed no signs of returning to the national park, forest department authorities launched an operation to rescue it.

Forest department officials said that on Thursday, Oban’s location was traced outside Kuno National Park’s boundary.

They said that Oban was wandering in the forest bordering the Shivpuri district. Based on its location, the cheetah monitoring team was moved around him.
“How Oban was caught cannot be explained, as it comes under our protocol,” Verma said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park on September 17, last year.

The cheetah was declared extinct from India in 1952 but 8 cheetahs (5 females and 3 males) were brought from Africa’s Namibia as part of ‘Project Cheetah’ and the government’s efforts to revitalise and diversify the country’s wildlife and habitat.