South Africa 100 Cheetahs To India: South Africa has signed an agreement to give more than 100 cheetahs to India as part of an ambitious project to reintroduce cheetahs to the South Asian country. An initial batch of 12 cheetahs was to be sent to India next month after the arrival of eight cheetahs from Namibia in September last year, the environment ministry said. The effort to bring these cheetahs was going on since last year. Now the government has got success in this.
“There is a plan to send 12 cheetahs every year for the next eight to 10 years to help establish a secure cheetah population,” the ministry said in a statement. India was once home to the Asiatic Cheetah, but by 1952 the animal was declared extinct. The main reason for the extinction of cheetahs in India was their hunting for the smuggling of their skins.
Consent to bring from abroad in 2020
Efforts to reintroduce the animal gained momentum in 2020 when the Supreme Court of India ruled that the African cheetah could be introduced into the country on an experimental basis in a carefully chosen location. Talks for the deal with South Africa were on for a long time, with the first cheetahs initially expected to arrive in India in August last year. During this, he is living in Quarantine.
Namibian Cheetah in Kuno National Park
Adrian Tordiff, a veterinary wildlife specialist at the University of Pretoria who was involved in the deal, said, ‘The first shipment of cheetahs from Namibia marks the transcontinental transfer.’ Let us tell you that the cheetah brought from Namibia has been released in Kuno National Park, 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of New Delhi. These leopards are very safe here.
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