Jaipur: African cheetah KP-2 from Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park was once again sighted in Rajasthan’s Baran district on Saturday, turning its cross-border wanderings into a recurring wildlife headline.
The radio-collared cheetah clearly didn’t get the memo about state boundaries. Months after being escorted back to Kuno National Park, the African cheetah returned to Baran’s forests. This time, it was sighted in the district’s Kishanganj range on Saturday, officials said.
The cheetah, KP-2, was last sighted in Baran’s Ramgarh crater area on November 27 last year, following which it was sent back to Kuno on December 12. “However, on Saturday it returned again to the Kishanganj forest area and our forest staff had spotted it,” the Deputy Conservator of Forest (DFO) in Rajasthan’s Baran, Bade Vivekanand Manikrao, said.
According to officials, the local staff in the Kishanganj range found it resting under a tree in Banjhamli village.
“We have directed our officials to ensure necessary arrangements to send it back to Kuno, while the officials from KNP were also informed about the development,” Manikrao said.
On November 27, KP-2 reached the Ramgarh crater area after crossing the Parvati river at the border of MP’s Sheopur and stayed there for over 15 days.
“Its movement has majorly been traced at 10 to 15 square kilometres in the Ramgarh crater area, where it has also hunted a nilgai, a calf, and a goat. However, this time it had not hunted anything yet. We have asked our officials to closely monitor it,” he further added.
“The cheetah is safe. Our teams are following it constantly at a distance of 100 metres to 200 metres. We are also tracking its movement through the radio collar installed on its neck,” said the officer.
He further added that officials do not have any plan to tranquilise it at the moment, while they have also issued an alert to local villagers.
Forest officials said that this is the fourth time in the last two years that a cheetah from Kuno National Park has entered Rajasthan. In December 2023, another cheetah, Agni, was sighted venturing into the Ramgarh crater area, following which authorities tranquilised it and brought it back to Kuno a day later.
Three months later, in March 2024, another cheetah was sighted roaming around the Ramgarh area and returned to Kuno on its own three days later, officials said.