Poacher caught at Indian national park housing cheetahs

Bhopal: Officials were able to catch a man with a history of poaching at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP). Cheetahs brought from Namibia and South Africa are housed here.

The man, Alam Mongia, had a gun buried in the river bed. Divisional Forest Officer PK Verma said the officials were able to recover the firearm. He was arrested on April 16 but it was kept under wraps so that investigators can track down two of his associates who are still at large.

Mongia is in his 40s and lives in the area near the park. He is the fourth poacher to be caught from the protected forest since the cheetahs were imported to revive the population of wild animals in the country.

The DFO said that Mongia has no connection with big poachers gangs. And none of the four poachers arrested recently are involved in killing carnivores. They only set up snares to hunt herbivores for bushmeat.

Under the programme to revive the cheetah population in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight cheetahs from Namibia into quarantine enclosures in September 2022. One of the female cheetahs died due to kidney disease later. In February 2022, another batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa was released to the same park. One of the male cheetahs among them died due to cardiopulmonary disease.

In December 2022, the carcass of a big cat was found hanging from a tree near Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. Officials think poachers are involved in the crime.