Kuno National Park sees 19% rise in tourist visits

Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP), India’s first home to African cheetahs,has reported a 19% surge in tourist visits in the 2024–25 season, underscoring its growing status as a major wildlife tourism destination.According to data released ahead of the park’s annual monsoon closure, Kuno welcomed 3,833 tourists between October 2024 and June 2025, including 21 international visitors. This marked a steady rise from the 3,221 tourists recorded during the same period in 2023–24. The park shuts each year from July 1 to September 30 due to heavy monsoon activity.
The increase in footfall comes in the wake of India’s historic initiative to reintroduce cheetahs, with 20 translocated from Namibia and South Africa between September 2022 and February 2023. Since then, the park has seen a remarkable revival in tourist activity. Visitor numbers skyrocketed by 121% in 2023–24, the year when the cheetahs were first released into the wild.Tourism to Kuno has grown consistently—from 804 visitors in 2019–20 to more than 3,800 in the latest reporting period. The presence of 10 adult cheetahs and 19 Indian-born cubs has only heightened public interest, with the park now drawing both domestic and international wildlife enthusiasts.
In a recent expansion of India’s cheetah conservation program, two male cheetahs, Prabhas and Pavak, were relocated from Kuno to the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district on April 20, 2025. The move marks the establishment of Gandhi Sagar as the second cheetah habitat in the country.The sustained rise in tourist numbers reflects growing public engagement with India’s big-cat conservation success and positions Kuno National Park as an emerging hub for eco-tourism. Forest officials expect the momentum to continue post-monsoon, especially as the park’s cheetah population thrives.