Cheetah, the world¡¯s fastest land animal has onceroamed the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, documents have revealed.
Documents said that the extinct animal was sighted, adopted as pet and poached for its skin, before the last one was shot dead in 1952.
The landscape of Karnataka has been home to thecat. A picture of two cheetah cubs playing with a dog is being circulated inKarnataka, The New Indian Express reported.
¡°It is said to be a picture from Dharwad. It hasbeen sent by another officer, a friend of mine,¡± said B J Hosmath, former PCCFand Chief Wildlife Warden.
The photograph caption reads, ¡°The now extinctIndian Cheetah (declared officially extinct in 1952) cubs photographed by G SRodon at Dharwad in 1897/published in the journal of Bombay Natural HistorySociety (1897).¡±?The picture is now doing the rounds on socialmedia.
To support this further, a journal - Mammals ofCoimbatore - mentions the presence of cheetah in Satyamangalam tiger reserve atKottamangalam.?
An extract from the mannual said, ¡°This animal is sparsely distributed over a small portion of Vellamunda and Kottamangalam.¡±
¡°The Kottamangalam and Vellamunda form thelandscape of Sathyamangalam,¡± informed Hosmath.
The text also mentions Colonel Davies, a Britishofficer who happened to find the pelt of ¡®Felis jubata¡¯ (scientific name forcheetah).
¡°He saw five good skins of Felis jubata among thepelts of leopard, tiger and other animals. They had come from Kothamangalam.¡±
The journal also mentions another Britisher,Wedderburn, who also said that he has seen the skins of cheetah - called so inCutcherry and one is in his possession - which he ¡®got¡¯ from Bolampatti.
Sathyamangalam was part of erstwhile MysuruPrincely state. The cheetah went extinct in 1952 after the last one was shotdead in Madhya Pradesh.
The government is now making all efforts to bring backthe cheetahs to Indian forests.
Recently it was reported that cheetahs will be reintroduced to India through an agreement with South Africa after a gap of 70-years.
Twelve of the predatory cats, which onceroamed across much of Asia and Africa and are now extinct in India, will beflown to the state of Madyha Pradesh where they will be introduced to the KunoNational Park, the University of Pretoria had said in a statement.
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