Cheetahs return to India after 70 years

The animals were released into a 10-kilometer enclosure on the day that Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 72, in the presence of the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and wildlife specialists. Seven decades after the species was deemed extinct in India in 1952, cheetahs were flown in from southern Africa for their reintroduction. In a specially designed Boeing 747-700 jumbo jet, India transported five female and three male cheetahs from Namibia. Big cats are being transported from one continent to another and reintroduced to the forest for the first time. Over the next five years, the Indian government intends to introduce 50 cheetahs to various parks.

The government of Jawarhal Lal Nehru declared the fastest land animal extinct in 1952. Due to habitat loss, overhunting, sports hunting, and carnivore use for coursing, all carnivorous species were completely eradicated from the nation. IFS Praveen Kaswan claims that Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, King of Koriya (Chhattisgarh), hunted the final three cheetahs in 1947. The three cheetahs were all adults, about 6 feet 4-5 inches tall, and they all hunted at night. The cheetahs are the “goodwill ambassadors for India-Nambia relations” and “for the conservation of wildlife all over the world,” according to Prashant Agarwal, the Indian High Commissioner in Namibia, who described the occasion as a one-of-a-kind intercontinental translocation.

There are five females and three males among the eight wild cheetahs in Namibia. According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the five female cheetahs range in age from two to five years, while the male cheetahs are between 4.5 and 5.5 years old (CCF).
Under the UPA-2 administration, then-Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh approved a plan to reintroduce cheetahs to India in 2009. The project was, however, put on hold in 2013 by the Supreme Court. The Narendra Modi administration brought the plan back to life in 2017, and the Supreme Court authorised the “experimental” reintroduction of African cheetahs to a suitable habitat in India.