First pair of cheetahs released in India

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“Both cheetahs are fine,” Bhupender Yadav wrote on Twitter Saturday after male Obaan and female Asha left their quarantine enclosure in Kuno National Park on their way to freedom.

The two cheetahs, along with six of their fellow cheetahs, were brought to India from Namibia in September after India’s Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the big cats should be reintroduced on a trial basis. The animals were fitted with transmitter collars to track their movements.

The last animal of the Asiatic cheetah subspecies on the subcontinent is believed to have been killed by an Indian prince in 1947. The species was finally declared extinct in 1952.

The reintroduction program for the African cheetah, another subspecies, is a showpiece project for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to official information, this is the world’s first attempt to move cheetahs across continents.

Last month, 12 more cheetahs arrived in India from South Africa for release. A total of 100 animals will be moved to India over the next decade, even though some critics fear that the animals will have difficulty acclimatizing to the new Indian habitat and that leopards in the national park may compete with them for their prey.

Cheetahs, one of the oldest big cat species, are threatened with extinction. It is estimated that only about 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild, most of them in Africa.

(SDA)

Source: Blick