Three Years Journey – The Return of the Cheetah

In the golden hues of a September dawn in 2022, eight majestic cheetahs from the Namibian savannas touched down on Indian soil, their paws marking the first steps of a species long absent from the subcontinent.

This historic moment, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, marked the launch of Project Cheetah, the world’s first intercontinental translocation of a large carnivore.

Fast-forward to November 2025: Mukhi, the first cheetah cub born on Indian soil, has herself become a mother to five healthy cubs, symbolising not just biological resurgence but a profound testament to human stewardship over nature’s delicate balance.

Launched in September 2022, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and spearheaded by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Project Cheetah embodies India’s unwavering commitment to biodiversity restoration.

Drawing from the 2013 Action Plan and Supreme Court directives, it seeks to reintroduce the Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus, declared extinct in India in 1952) as a flagship species, fostering ecosystem health across vast landscapes.

As of December 2025, India has 30 cheetahs: 12 adults, nine sub-adults, and nine cubs, comprising 11 founder stock and 19 India-born cheetahs.

With a further eight cheetahs arriving in India from Botswana, the project continues to stand as a beacon of hope, earning international recognition for its scientific rigour and diplomatic finesse.

What began as a conservation experiment has grown into a statement of ecological optimism and national commitment: a chance to restore a broken ecological link, honour our natural heritage, and lead a global effort in large-carnivore rewilding.

The cheetah’s tale in India is woven into the fabric of ancient lore, with the animal being a favoured hunting companion. The Asiatic cheetah, once roaming from the Arabian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent, vanished from independent India, leaving a void in the grassland-savanna biome.

Historically, the Asiatic cheetah ranged widely across India, from Punjab in the north to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, and from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to Bengal in the east, occupying diverse open habitats, including scrub forests, dry grasslands, savannas, and other arid-to-semiarid landscapes.

The final confirmed sighting of wild cheetahs in India occurred in 1947, when three animals were shot in the Sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Koriya district in present-day Chhattisgarh. Five years later, in 1952, the species was officially declared extinct in India, marking the end of its native presence on the subcontinent.

India’s native Asiatic cheetah vanished due to a combination of excessive hunting, poaching, and the use of cheetahs for coursing. Large-scale habitat loss from agriculture, prey declines, climate pressures, and the species’ low reproductive rate and narrow genetic base have further accelerated their extinction.

Endorsed by an expert committee, Kuno National Park was selected as the optimal reintroduction site following the relocation of 24 villages (1,545 families), creating nearly 6,258 hectares of inviolate grassland for the cheetahs.

Kuno National Park offered an ideal habitat, abundant prey, and minimal human disturbance, thanks to village relocations. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and NTCA’s Action Plan identified Kuno as ready for cheetahs, making it the perfect home for these big cats after more than 70 years.

By 2022, fortified by Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)-aligned strategies for species recovery, India transformed this plan into action. The project’s ethos resonates with UN Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land), positioning India as a leader in reversing biodiversity loss through transboundary conservation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal vision and sustained intervention have been the driving force behind Project Cheetah, transforming a decades-old dream into a living reality.

From directing the formulation of the 2022 Action Plan and pushing for the world’s first intercontinental cheetah translocation to personally releasing the first eight Namibian cheetahs into Kuno National Park on 17 September 2022, the Prime Minister has remained deeply invested at every stage.

Prime Minister Modi facilitated high-level MoUs with Namibia (July 2022) and South Africa (January 2023), engaged the nation by inviting citizens via Mann Ki Baat to name the cheetahs, and consistently highlighted milestones, including the birth of the first Indian cubs in 2023 and the historic second-generation litter in November 2025.

By linking the project to Mission LiFE and India’s G20 “One Earth, One Family, One Future” ethos, PM Modi has elevated Project Cheetah into a global symbol of science-driven, community-inclusive rewilding, personally overseeing its progress and ensuring that the roar of the cheetah, silent in India for over seven decades, echoes once again across its ancient grasslands.

Objectives and Strategic Framework

Project Cheetah’s mandate is multifaceted, with these spotted cats designated as flagship species. The project aims to reintroduce cheetahs and restore neglected grasslands and semi-arid ecosystems, thereby benefiting prey species and other grassland‑dependent biodiversity.

Under this project, the authorities plan to establish a viable metapopulation of 60-70 cheetahs across 17,000 km² in the Kuno-Gandhi Sagar landscape, restoring open forests and grasslands, and mitigating climate impacts through enhanced carbon sinks.

The phased implementation envisages ensuring ecological prudence through:

• Founder stock introduction into Kuno National Park’s 748 km² core area, expanding to a 3,200 km² landscape. About 12–14 wild cheetahs of reproductive age, genetically diverse, disease-free, predator-wary, capable hunters, and socially compatible, sourced from South Africa, Namibia, or other African countries as founder stock for the first five years, with additional imports as needed.
• Metapopulation linkage with Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (368 km² sanctuary; 2,500 km² potential habitat), located about 300 km from Kuno. The long-term goal is to establish a metapopulation of 60-70 Cheetahs in the Kuno-Gandhisagar landscape after ensuring restorative measures, prey availability and scientific management.
• Self-sustaining growth: If a net annual growth rate of about 5% is maintained, accounting for natural mortality, births, and periodic supplementation, the released population is expected to reach its carrying capacity in roughly 15 years.

Budgetary support underscores resolve: Rs 39 crore (USD 5 million) for Phase 1, integrated into the Centrally Sponsored Scheme-Project Tiger, with additional allocations for prey translocation and infrastructure.

Monitoring adheres to IUCN Guidelines (2013) employing GPS collars, camera traps and distance sampling (734-816 km transects for monitoring prey and habitat).

Project Cheetah’s ledger brims with quantifiable successes, blending innovation with resilience. 

Early breeding is one of the strongest biological signals that a species has adjusted well to its new environment. The successful reproduction of cheetahs in Kuno so soon after their translocation indicates that the landscape is meeting their essential ecological needs, adequate prey, suitable habitat, and low stress levels.

This early reproductive success is a strong indicator of habitat suitability and environmental stability, confirming that the reintroduction strategy is working as intended. It suggests that Kuno supports cheetahs in the short term and has the potential to sustain a healthy, viable population over the long term.

The Litters include:

• Jwala (Namibian female): 8 cubs across two litters (March 2023 – Firstborn litter in India and January 2024)  
• Aasha (Namibian): 3 cubs (January 2024)
• Gamini (South African): 6 cubs (March 2024)
• Nirva (Namibian female): 2 cubs in her first litter, 6th litter in India (November 2024); 5 cubs in   her second litter, 8th litter in India (April 2025)
• Veera (Namibian female): 2 cubs in her first litter, 7th litter in India (February 2025)
• Mukhi (Indian-born): 5 cubs (November 2025), a genetic milestone for second-generation viability

Female Aasha ranges across 121 km², while her three sub-adult male cubs use a much larger 1,508 km² area. The male coalition Agni–Vayu holds a home range of 1,819 km².

Female Gamini and her four sub-adult cubs occupy an extensive 6,160 km² range, and female Jwala with her four sub-adult cubs uses a home range of 3,139 km².

In April 2025, Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh became a second home for cheetahs in India, as two cheetahs were released there.

Community and Livelihood Empowerment: Partners in Preservation

At the heart of Project Cheetah is inclusive conservation. Over 450 “Cheetah Mitras” in 80 villages serve as vigilant ambassadors, conducting 150 awareness sammelans (meetings) and 16 Anubhuti (experience) camps for 2,200 students.

Employment surges: 80 locals as cheetah trackers, 200 as “Surksha Sramik” for patrols, and local youth trained as safari guides.

Eco-development: roads, check dams, sanitation, spans 100+ villages in the Cheetah zone, fostering coexistence. This model, echoed in the UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) frameworks, exemplifies community-led biodiversity gains.

Project Cheetah stands as a landmark in global wildlife diplomacy, built on deep, formalised cooperation between India and African range countries.

Under the intergovernmental MoU between India and South Africa (signed in January 2023), both nations committed to a long-term partnership in cheetah translocation, custodianship, training, and technology transfer, with the arrangement reviewed every five years to ensure continuity and relevance.

This followed India’s historic first-ever intercontinental wild-to-wild cheetah translocation from Namibia in 2022, making Project Cheetah the world’s first large carnivore reintroduction across continents. Expert teams from Namibia and South Africa jointly carried out capture, quarantine, airlift, and release operations.

At the same time, Indian wildlife managers received extensive hands-on training in carnivore handling, monitoring, radio-collaring, and post-release management.

Sourcing cheetahs from genetically diverse southern African populations further strengthens India’s founding population and aligns with global conservation responsibility.

India has also documented Project Cheetah as a model for rewilding and species recovery across its national submissions to global biodiversity forums, reinforcing the initiative’s multilateral character.

This collaborative framework, anchored in formal agreements, joint field operations, and iterative training exchanges, positions Project Cheetah not merely as India’s conservation endeavour but as a global restoration mission that exemplifies how threatened species can be revived through science-led, transnational cooperation.

Project Cheetah is more than reintroduction; it is India’s ode to ecological harmony, where science, diplomacy, and community converge to heal a fractured wild.

With cheetahs thriving in India, it invites the world to celebrate this renaissance, a model for Convention on Biological Diversity nations, where extinct echoes race back to life.