Watch: Kuno National Park welcomes 2nd batch as CM Chouhan releases 12 wild Cheetahs

Madha Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan released the second batch of the wild Cheetahs in the Kuno National Park on February 18.

The Cheetahs are being brought to India as part of the Cheetah Reintroduction project on the basis of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the South African and the Indian governments.

The second batch consists of 12 big cats that were transported to Gwalior Airport from South Africa earlier in the day. These majestic animals made their journey in an Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster Cargo plane.

Watch here.

The Cheetahs were released in an isolation area for some days where they will be observed the forest officials and after some time the big cats will be released in the national park.

Earlier in the day, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed his gratitude to PM Narendra Modi and thanked him for increasing the number of Cheetahs in Kuno National Park.

"In Kuno National Park today, the number of Cheetahs is going to increase. I thank PM Modi from the bottom of my heart, it is his vision. 12 Cheetahs will be rehabilitated to Kuno and total number will become 20," CM Chouhan said.

Earlier the Cheetah Project Chief, SP Yadav said, "We are happy to announce that at 8.30 pm (Local South African Time), the 12 cheetahs took off from Johannesburg airport in a C-17 Globemaster aircraft for the Gwalior airport. The cheetahs will land at the Gwalior airport at around 10 am IST on Saturday, February 18".Last year in September, eight cheetahs from Namibia were flown in to India.

Also Read: 12 cheetahs from South Africa lands at MP's Gwalior Airport

The MoU facilitates cooperation between the two countries to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India; promotes conservation and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity is built, to promote cheetah conservation. This includes human-wildlife conflict resolution, capture and translocation of wildlife and community participation in conservation in the two countries.