As part of the ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a batch of eight cheetahs, consisting of five females and three males, into quarantine enclosures at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on his 72nd birthday in September of last year. The reintroduction programme aims to reintroduce the spotted felines into the wild after their extinction in India in 1952. The eight cheetahs currently in the Kuno National Park are in good health and are killing prey every three to four days, officials have reported. One of the cheetahs had initially been unwell, with elevated creatinine levels, but recovered after receiving treatment.

A C-17 aircraft from the Indian Air Force left the country on Thursday morning to transport 12 cheetahs from South Africa. The Kuno National Park has created ten quarantine enclosures to house these new felines. India and South Africa signed an MoU in January of this year to transport cheetahs from South Africa and reintroduce them to the Kuno National Park. The successful reintroduction of cheetahs into the wild is a significant step towards restoring the ecological balance of the region and is expected to boost tourism in the area while providing additional revenue for the local economy.