Morena, 15 June

Five cheetahs were spotted nonchalantly crossing a road near a dam in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district on Sunday, offering a rare sight to morning walkers and prompting the forest department to urge the people to remain alert.

The felines were seen crossing the Pagara Dam in Jaura area, located around 50 km away from the Kuno National Park which is home to the African cheetahs.

Some locals panicked upon spotting the big cats out in the open at around 6.45 am, while others stood in awe and captured the rare sight on their mobile phones.

Forest officials were soon alerted about the presence of cheetahs in the area.

The sighting of the cheetahs created a buzz on social media as the videos went viral, prompting the forest department to appeal to villagers to remain alert.

The felines had travelled from the Kuno National Park (KNP) via Kailaras before reaching the Jaura region in Morena, Deputy Ranger Vinod Kumar Upadhyay.

Several cheetahs had been relocated from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP as part of efforts to revive the species in India after over seven decades of extinction.

Upadhyay said the cheetahs were located on Sunday at the Pagara Dam Kothi in the Jaura forest zone with the help of GPS collars fitted on them.

A forest team rushed to the spot and found the cheetahs resting on an elevated patch near the dam, closely watched by 'cheetah mitras' (trained local volunteers) and officials monitoring them from a safe distance, he said.

Upadhyay said the animals had travelled from Kuno via Kailaras before reaching the Jaura region. They were later spotted moving towards Khokha Pura village near Devgarh, with forest and tracking teams following them.

The cheetahs were being continuously tracked by dedicated teams, KNP Divisional Forest Officer R Thirukural said, adding these felines typically do not pose a threat to humans.