BHOPAL: Tourist arrivals at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) – the first home of African cheetahs in India – have grown by 19% in 2024-25 compared to the previous year.Just a day before the park is closed for tourists as part of the annual July 1-September 30 monsoon closure – the KNP management released figures of tourist arrivals spanning between 2019-20 and 2024-25. The figures showed that the tourist inflow at the park grew by 19%, rising from 3,221 travellers in 2023-24 to 3,833 (including 21 foreign tourists) in 2024-25.As part of re-introducing the fastest moving animal on earth into the Indian wilds again – seven decades after it went extinct in the Indian forests due to rampant poaching — 20 African cheetahs (from Namibia and South Africa) were introduced at the KNP in Sheopur district between September 2022 and February 2023.The tourist arrivals at the park which stood at 804 in 2019-20 grew by 12% to 903 in 2020-21. The numbers rose by 34% to 1,211 in 2021-22 and by 20% to 1,459 in 2022-23.The maximum surge in tourist arrivals, however, was reported in 2023-24, after the cheetahs were set free into the free ranging forests of the park located in the Gwalior-Chambal region of MP, Rajasthan.The tourist traffic grew by a massive 121% in 2023-24 to 3,221 tourists compared to the 1,459 total tourist arrivals at the park in 2022-23. The increase continued in 2024-25 also as the tourist arrivals grew by 19% to 3,833 tourists between Oct-June.Importantly, the park is open for the tourists annually from October to June and remains closed due to monsoon break between July 1 and September 30. Currently, there are 10 adult African (Namibian and South African) cheetahs and their 19 Indian born cubs at KNP.The Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in western Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district became the second home to the African cheetahs in India on April 20, after South African male coalition Prabhas and Pavak were moved there from the KNP.
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