India celebrates cheetah births to boost reintroduction bid
India's ambitious bid to reintroduce cheetahs received a major boost Wednesday when the environment minister announced the birth of three cubs.
Bhupender Yadav hailed "a roaring new chapter", saying in a statement that India's cheetah population now stands at 38.
Despite high mortality, it marks an overall rise of 35 percent from the 28 introduced in batches since 2022.
Yadav shared a photograph of the spotted big cat with the trio of tiny cubs, born to a South African cheetah giving birth in India for the second time.
Asiatic cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952. The critically endangered subspecies, once found across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, now survives in very small numbers in Iran.
Their African cousins were first reintroduced in September 2022 to India, to the Kuno National Park, 300 kilometres (190 miles) south of New Delhi.
The high-profile project, championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been dogged by criticism over the deaths of several of the superfast cats after their release.
Critics have warned the creatures may struggle to adapt to the Indian habitat due to competition for prey from a significant number of leopards in the national park.
Celebrating the "joyful arrival" of the latest trio, Yadav said it "marks the ninth successful cheetah litter on Indian soil and takes the number of surviving Indian-born cubs to 27".
"With these newest additions, India's total cheetah population has now reached 38 -- a powerful symbol of the country's determined and historic conservation effort."
- 'Little sprinters' -
The African cheetah's introduction in India is the first intercontinental relocation of the planet's fastest land animal.
Eight cheetahs were initially brought in from Namibia in 2022, another 12 came from South Africa in 2023, and eight more from Botswana in December 2025, according to government figures.
Experts in animal reintroductions say they often result in more than 50 percent mortality, especially in the initial phases.
Kuno, with a core protected area of 748 square kilometres (289 square miles), was chosen for its abundant prey and grasslands, with some cheetahs also now introduced to another site 200 kilometres away, Gandhisagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Some of the cheetahs reintroduced are intially held in a "soft release" zone -- large but enclosed areas to enable acclimatisation -- before slow introduction fully into the wild.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority, which oversees the cheetah project, said that survival rates and hunting successes are "comparable to other international cheetah reintroduction efforts, with recorded wild prey kills confirming successful adaptation to the Indian landscape".
Yadav said the new cubs to the cheetah called Gamini was a moment of "pride".
"May Gamini and her three little sprinters grow strong and carry the nation's cheetah revival story forward with speed and grace," he added.
Cheetahs usually purr, like powerful domestic cats, rather than roar like lions.
(A.Nikiforov--DTZ)
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