Nine more cheetahs from Botswana arrived at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, PTI reported. With this, the number of cheetahs in India stands at 48.
In September 2022, cheetahs were reintroduced under Project Cheetah to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country. The animals were being sourced from African nations like Namibia and South Africa.
Since 2023, at least 18 cheetahs have died.
The new batch of cheetahs from Botswana arrived in Gwalior on an Indian Air Force aircraft, Sheopur Public Relations Officer Avantika Shrivastava told PTI, adding that they were transported to the national park by helicopters.
Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav released the cheetahs into enclosures at the park, PTI reported.
The big cats will be kept under quarantine for a month before they are finally released, Project Cheetah Director Uttam Kumar Sharma told The Print.
The nine cheetahs were the third batch to be brought to India under the translocation programme, The Indian Express reported. Earlier introductions were from Namibia in September 2022 and South Africa in February 2023.
The arrival of the latest batch comes more than two months after a 20-month-old cheetah cub from Kuno National Park was killed on December 7 after being hit by a vehicle on the Agra-Mumbai National Highway in Gwalior.
The cub was one of two male cheetahs born in India to Gamini, a cheetah from South Africa. They had wandered outside Kuno’s boundaries nearly a month ago, The Hindu had quoted forest officials as saying.
Three days earlier, another cub had been found dead, a day after it was released into the wild with its mother and sibling.
In 2025, 12 cubs were born in the park, PTI reported. However, six did not survive. Between February 7 and February 18, nine cubs were also born in two litters. Overall, 39 cubs have been born at Kuno since 2023, according to the news agency.
The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.
Also read: Did the government gravely underestimate the space needed for Project Cheetah?
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