TEHRAN – More than 250 people have voluntarily participated in a program to save Asiatic cheetahs that are usually killed in road accidents in the northeast of the country.

The program started on March 18 just before the New Year holidays, ISNA quoted Ali-Akbar Qorbanlou, the director of the Turan National Park – a main habitat of Asiatic cheetah – as saying.

Each year, an average of 8 accidents in the Mayami-Abbasabad Road, Semnan Province, led to the killing of cheetahs, he said, noting, “Thank God, no accidents have happened this year so far.”

In July 2023, a two-year-old cheetah was killed on the Abbasabad-Mayami Road.

Also in March last year, another cheetah, pregnant with three cubs, was killed in an accident on the same road.

Since 2010, at least 10 cheetahs have been killed in car collisions on this 'killer' road.

Hassan Akbari, an official with the Department of Environment, said last year that some notable progress had been made to reduce wildlife mortality on this road.

Akbari told Press TV that speed enforcement cameras would be installed along the road to monitor drivers’ compliance with speed limits in the region.

Since 2010, World Cheetah Day has been celebrated annually on December 4 in different countries with the aim of raising public awareness about the menace of extinction the species faces.

Considering the fact that Iran is the last remaining habitat of the Asiatic cheetah, this species is of particular importance.

The Department of Environment has focused on breeding in captivity, and maintaining the cheetah population in the habitat.

MG