Kuno National Park
Map: India 
Current
relevance:
An Indian-born female cheetah at
Kuno National Park gave birth to four cubs in the wild, marking an
important development in India's cheetah reintroduction programme. The Ministry
of Environment, Forest and Climate Change identified this as the first
recorded birth in the wild involving an Indian-born female cheetah since
the programme began in 2022.
Continent:
Kuno
National Park is located in Asia, in South Asia, in central India,
within Madhya Pradesh.
Bordering Countries:
Madhya Pradesh is a landlocked state
bordered by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh,
while the Kuno landscape lies close to the Rajasthan–Madhya Pradesh region.
River Flow:
The Kuno River flows through the
Kuno landscape and is a tributary of the Chambal River; the Chambal
subsequently joins the Yamuna and forms part of the Ganga river system.
Important Places:
§
Kuno National
Park — Located in Sheopur district of Madhya
Pradesh and developed as India's first cheetah reintroduction site.
§
Sheopur — District in northwestern Madhya Pradesh
where Kuno is located.
§
Kuno River — Important river
associated with the protected landscape.
§
Chambal River — Major river of the
region; the Kuno is part of the Chambal drainage system.
§
Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary — Another
important landscape identified for developing a wider Kuno–Gandhi Sagar
cheetah metapopulation.
Significance:
§ Project Cheetah: Kuno is the
principal site for India's cheetah reintroduction programme, launched in
September 2022.
§ Re-establishment
of a Native Species: Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952;
Project Cheetah seeks to establish a viable population through translocation
and breeding.
§ Natural
Breeding: The birth of cubs by an Indian-born female in the wild is significant
because the programme's long-term objective is a population capable of
surviving and reproducing under natural conditions.
§ Landscape-Level
Conservation: The conservation strategy extends beyond Kuno, with the Kuno–Gandhi
Sagar landscape envisaged as a larger metapopulation area.
§ Grassland &
Scrub Ecosystems: Cheetah conservation also supports management of grassland
and scrub-forest habitats, prey populations and broader biodiversity.
Source: THE HINDU