India to get 8 cheetahs from Botswana

• India and Botswana formally announced plan to translocate eight cheetahs from the African nation during the State Visit of President Droupadi Murmu.

• The eight Cheetahs are expected to reach India in a few months time after undertaking quarantine procedures.

• Thanking her counterpart President Duma Gideon Boko and the people of Botswana for the gesture, President Murmu assured that India will take good care of the cheetahs.

Cheetah Reintroduction Programme - Project Cheetah

• The ‘African Cheetah Introduction Project in India’ was first conceived in 2009. In 2013, the Supreme Court turned down the plea for relocation of African cheetahs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

• In January 2020, the Supreme Court allowed the government to introduce the African cheetah to a suitable habitat on an experimental basis to see whether it can adapt to Indian conditions.

• In September 2022, eight cheetahs airlifted from Namibia — five females and three males — were released in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP), putting the sanctuary in Sheopur district firmly on the world map.

• The cheetahs were introduced in KNP on September 17, 2022.

• It is said to be the world’s first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project.

• In a second such translocation, 12 cheetahs were flown in from South Africa and released into Kuno on February 18, 2023. 

• In April 2025, two cheetahs were transported to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, located on the boundary of Mandsaur and Neemuch districts in Madhya Pradesh.

• The country now has 27 cheetahs, including 16 born on Indian soil. 

• Of them, 24 are at Kuno and three are at the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary.

Significance of cheetah reintroduction

• Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the world’s fastest land animal, got completely wiped out from India due to their use for coursing, sport hunting, overhunting and habitat loss. 

• Cheetahs don’t need much water and can survive in dry forests, grasslands, open plains and desert regions. 

• The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh and the animal was officially declared extinct in 1952.

• Cheetah is considered vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species, with a declining population of less than 7,000 found primarily in African savannas.

• The main goal of cheetah reintroduction project in India is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.