Once a dreaded dacoit, Ramesh Sikarwar is now a 'Cheetah Mitra' raising awareness about big cats being brought to India

After going extinct in the country 70 years ago in 1952, eight cheetahs are being reintroduced in India. Cheetahs will be brought in from Namibia and Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh will be the first location to see the big cats.

To safeguard the animal from local inhabitants, the government has launched the 'Cheetah Mitra' (Cheetah friend) campaign, in which volunteers would increase awareness about the species among the residents. Ramesh Sikarwar, a former dacoit, has been named as the most prominent 'Cheetah Mitra.'

Sikarwar, who is now 72, once headed a gang of bandits that terrorised the rugged ravines of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh, but the former dacoit is now on a mission to raise awareness about cheetahs.

He surrendered in October 1984, but his standing in the area remains unchanged. That is why he has been designated as a Cheetah Mitra.

As part of an inter-continental translocation initiative, eight cheetahs will be flown to Jaipur in Rajasthan from Namibia in Africa on September 17 in a cargo plane and then to the Kuno-Palpur National Park (KPNP) in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh the same day.

On September 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday, three of these cheetahs will be released into the park's quarantine enclosures as part of the cheetah restoration initiative, seven decades after the animal became extinct in India.

"Forest department personnel approached me some time back to notify me that a few significant people in the community are being enrolled as 'Cheetah Mitra' and requested me to become one for increasing awareness among the public about the huge cat", Sikarwar told PTI.

They told me that cheetahs are coming to Kuno National Park on Saturday, and this will help in the development of the region, he said.

"I have been donning a cap and sporting a 'gamcha' (cloth) as a 'Cheetah Mitra', and constantly meeting people to raise awareness among them about cheetahs," he said.

"I am telling them that cheetah never attacks a human being and even if it comes out of the forest, there is no need to panic and they should immediately alert the nearest forest officials about it," he added.

The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.

The 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' was conceived in 2009. A plan to introduce the big cat in the KPNP by November last year had suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Ramesh Sikarwar is also going to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday on September 17.

(With inputs from PTI)

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