India To Get More Cheetahs By Year-End From Kenya, Namibia Or Botswana, Sites In Gujarat, MP Identified

India will get more Cheetahs from abroad by the end of this year and talks are on for the same with multiple countries like Kenya, Botswana and Namibia, top government sources said. Each of these countries could send a batch of 8-10 Cheetahs and by December, at least one batch from Nambia or Botswana will come to India. The batch from Kenya could come next year.

India’s record in Project Cheetah is excellent and the survival rate of cubs is over 61 per cent, much higher than the global standard of 40 per cent, top government sources said. There are 27 Cheetahs in India right now, with 15 of them being free-ranging in the wild. India has released three Cheetahs in the Gandhisagar sanctuary this year, besides their original habitat of Kuno in Madhya

Pradesh.

Two additional sites identified for release of Cheetahs in the future are Banni grasslands in Gujarat and Nauradrvi wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. The Cheetahs expected to come from Kenya could be released in Banni grasslands. Sources said one reason for the success of Project Cheetah was that India had a good density for prey and India’s habitat was rich. Also, India has given good protection to Cheetahs, which remain in Schedule 1 of Wildlife Conversation Act.

The adult cheetah survival rate in Kuno grew from 70 per cent in the first year to 85.7 per cent in the second year, sources said. “Our survival rate of Cheetahs is much better than global standards,” sources said.

India got eight cheetahs from Namibia in 2022 and 12 Cheetahs from South Africa in 2023. Among the 20 translocated Cheetahs, 11 have survived. Twenty-six Cheetahs were born in India and 16 are surviving. Every adult Cheetah has a radio-collar for live monitoring and there has been no incidence of any damage due to radio-collar since the second year as Cheetahs took time to acclimatise.

India plans to get 10-12 cheetahs every year to populate new sites, ensure genetic diversity and fitness and habitat restoration. “In any translocation, the success depends on the Cheetahs born in India and their survival,” a source said.

Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Bhupender Yadav, had earlier told CNN-News18 that the Cheetahs seem to have acclimatised in the local climatic conditions, are hunting locally available prey, and surviving in habitat shared with other carnivores.

“I am happy to share that the cheetahs are breeding much better than expected. These developments, that too in such a short period, are unprecedented in other parts of the world. This is quite encouraging and a good indicator of success of the project,” Yadav told CNN-News18 last month. “The good news is that the birth rate is better than expected, which is highly satisfying,” he had said.