MP’s Nauradehi Sanctuary to become 3rd cheetah habitat in India: CM Yadav

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Tuesday announced that the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary will soon become the third home for cheetahs in the country after Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary. He said cheetahs are likely to be released in Nauradehi within the next two months.

Yadav made the announcement while addressing ministers ahead of the state Cabinet meeting in Bhopal.

“Cheetahs are flourishing rapidly in Madhya Pradesh. They will be released in the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in about two months. With this, Madhya Pradesh will have three habitats for cheetahs,” the Chief Minister said during the meeting.

The announcement came a day after the Namibian female cheetah Jwala gave birth to five cubs at Kuno National Park, further boosting the big cat population in the state.

Spread across the districts of Sagar, Damoh and Narsinghpur, the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the state. Its development as a cheetah habitat is expected to ease ecological pressure on Kuno National Park, which currently hosts the largest population of cheetahs under the reintroduction programme.

Following the birth of Jwala’s cubs, the cheetah population in Kuno has risen to 50. Earlier, three cheetahs—one female and two males—were relocated to Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Mandsaur district as part of the expansion strategy for the species in the state.

Overall, the cheetah population in Madhya Pradesh has now reached 53 under Project Cheetah. The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022, with the release of eight African cheetahs—five females and three males—from Namibia into Kuno National Park.

The programme marked the world’s first intercontinental translocation of a large carnivore and aims to restore the cheetah population in India, which became extinct in 1952.

Subsequently, 12 more cheetahs from South Africa were introduced into Kuno in February 2023. The project, driven by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, seeks to re-establish the ecological role of cheetahs in India’s grassland ecosystems while strengthening long-term conservation efforts.