Eight cheetahs – five female and three male – have been flown-in to India from Namibia in southern Africa.
All of them, aged between two and six years, are part of an experiment to help bolster the population of the big cats after they went extinct in the wild, 70 years ago.
The last three cheetahs in the wild in India were shot in the Sal forests, Chhattisgarh, in 1948.
In 1952, the Indian government officially declared cheetahs extinct in the country.
The eight cheetahs were a gift from the government of Namibia.
Their arrival coincides with the 72nd birthday of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who released them into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, a wildlife range in India, on 17 September, 2022.
photo credit: india
