PM Modi to visit Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on his birthday

Bhopal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on September 17, his birthday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Tuesday.

While chairing the cabinet meeting, the chief minister said that Prime Minister Modi will visit Kuno National Park where African cheetahs would be shifted into wildlife sanctuary. The cheetahs would be brought to India under the world's first Inter-continental translocation of the fastest moving animal - from Namibia and South Africa to the national park.

Kuno National Park is located in Shivpuri district under Gwalior-Chambal division.

Sources told IANS that the first batch of African cheetahs would be flown in from Johannesburg (South Africa) to New Delhi and then to Khajuraho by September 15-16. From Khajuraho airport, they would be transported to Shivpuri's Kuno National Park via road.

"I am happy to announce that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park in Shivpuri. He will attend the programme of shifting African cheetahs onto the park. The Prime Minister will also address the gathering of Self-Help Group of women," Chouhan said.

Earlier, the first batch of African cheetahs was supposed to arrive in Madhya Pradesh by August 15. However, it got delayed due various reasons, officials in Madhya Pradesh Forest department said.

Recently, MP forest minister Kunwar Vinay Shah had visited to South Africa for the same purpose.

To mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17, the state BJP unit has prepared a long list of programme.

The party has decided to celebrate his birthday for a period of over two weeks as 'seva Pakhwara' (service fortnight) across the state.