Project Cheetah | India to welcome 3rd batch of African cheetahs by December, says MoEF

New Delhi: India is set to get its third batch of African cheetahs by December and this time the cats will come from Botswana, Environment Ministry sources said on Monday.

“Eight cheetahs will come from Botswana where they have been kept in quarantine as per protocol. Our officials returned from the country recently completing the formalities. The animals would be kept at Kuno initially,” sources, without disclosing where the new batch of the predators will finally be released.

Since the launch of Project Cheetah in 2022, India first imported eight cheetahs from Namibia followed by 12 animals from South Africa. Out of them 11 have survived so far and the current lot of 27 cheetahs include 16 born in India. As many as 15 cheetahs in Kuno are free-ranging.

Officials said one cheetah born in India has reached adulthood and another would reach that stage in the next 3-4 months. When they reproduce, they will create the first cheetah born in India from a mother also born in India. This, according to the sources, is a conservation success.

One of the two is Mukhi, a female cub born to Namibian cheetah Jwala, who gave birth to four cubs, of which three died due to extreme heat. The fourth one, Mukhi, survived.

Authorities have identified three more cheetah release sites, Gandhisagar and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and Banni grasslands in Gujarat, as it aims to continue with a mix of transcontinental relocation of cheetahs and an organic growth in their numbers in India to boost their numbers across a vast territory.

While two cheetahs were released in Gandhisagar in April this year, the officials plan to bring 10-12 cheetahs every year to populate the new sites.