Cheetahs, which were declared extinct in India in 1952, have now set their feet in the country. Eight Cheetahs brought from Namibia to India in a special cargo flight Boeing -717 landed in Gwalior today. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia welcomed the cheetahs that landed at Maharajpura Air Base.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reached Gwalior. From there, they will go to Kuno National Park in a helicopter and start the cheetah project. On the occasion of his 72nd birthday, Modi will release the animals into an enclosure spread over 10km.
With this project, cheetahs are going to re-enter India after almost 74 years. After the last cheetah died in 1948 in the Koriya district of Chhattisgarh, their traces disappeared in the country.
Project Cheetah was approved by the Supreme Court in January 2020 as a pilot programme to reintroduce the species to India. The eight cheetahs that are brought to the country include five females and three males.