"Remaining cheetahs from this batch of eight will be released in the wild in a staggered manner," he said, without disclosing any timeline.
Seven decades after they became extinct in India, eight Cheetahs arrived in the country from Namibia by a special flight on Saturday morning and were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP).
Female cheetah 'Asha', one of the big cats translocated to India from Namibia, has wandered outside the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh once again, a forest official said on Friday.
As per the officials, the cubs which were born to a Namibian cheetah on March 24, died from apparent dehydration and weakness within the fenced area housing the mother and cubs.
With this, six cheetahs have been released into the wild at the KNP so far. Now, 11 translocated felines and four cubs are left in the enclosures, he said.
cheetah Gamini was translocated to India from South Africa as part of the ambitious project to revive the population of the world's fastest land animal in India, which had gone extinct decades ago.
The cheetah reintroduction project in India made significant progress in 2025, with the birth of 12 cubs at Kuno National Park. Despite some deaths, the cheetah population in India has reached 30, and further expansion of the project is planned.
Out of 26 cheetahs in KNP, 16 are in the wild and are performing very well. They have adapted well to the habitat, have learned to live with co-predators, and are regularly hunting, Sharma added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release cheetahs being brought from Namibia in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park on Saturday morning, an official said on Friday.
He expressed hope the project will increase tourist footfalls and boost employment generation opportunities for people of the region.
A delegation from Botswana visited Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh to review preparations for the translocation of cheetahs from Botswana. The team expressed satisfaction with the quarantine facilities and other arrangements.
A cheetah translocated from Namibia to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh has given birth to four healthy cubs, officials said on Wednesday.
Mandakini Shah, 87, and her sibling, Ushaben, 84, have become local stars since they started riding through Ahmedabad on their scooter
Two cheetah cubs born to African cheetah Neerva were found dead and their mutilated carcasses were recovered at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. The carcasses of the two newborns will be cremated on Thursday as per norms. Samples from the dead cubs were collected and sent for examination and the exact cause of their death will be known only after getting the lab report. All adult cheetahs, including Neerva, and the rest of the 12 cubs at the Kuno park are healthy, the official said. With 12 of those cubs surviving, the count of cheetahs at KNP was last reported to be 24.
The cheetahs have been brought from Namibia as part of India's ambitious programme to bring the big cat back from extinction.
This is the fourth cheetah litter on Indian soil and the first litter of cheetahs brought from South Africa, Yadav informed.
Environment ministry is organising various programmes at Sesaipura related to Project Cheetah.
This is the second time this month that cheetah Oban has been tranquilised and brought back to the KNP after the feline wandered a long distance from the park.
India is set to bring eight cheetahs from Botswana in two phases, with four arriving by May 2025. This follows the successful reintroduction of cheetahs to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, with the population now at 26, including 14 cubs born in India. The initiative aims to boost cheetah conservation efforts and create inter-state collaboration for their protection. The project has already seen significant investment, with over Rs 112 crore spent on cheetah rehabilitation.
'The space required for wild cheetah populations to thrive was grossly under-estimated.' 'Cheetahs, because of their social system and ecologically fragile nature, live at only 1 cheetah per 100 sq kms even in the best habitats of Africa.'
A Namibian cheetah has given birth to three cubs at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district, a Union minister said on Wednesday.
The cheetahs, released in a bigger zone on Saturday, were together in the quarantine enclosure, the DFO added.
The incident is seen as a major setback for the ambitious 'Project Cheetah' under which 20 felines were translocated to KNP in Sheopur district from Namibia and South Africa in separate batches in September 2022 and February this year.
He said the cheetahs are adapting to the weather and the habitat and establishing their territories and "we should give them time to do that".
The tiger, around three years old, forayed into the protected forest from Rajasthan's Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, which was about 100 km from KNP, officials said.
The eight cheetahs flown to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) from Namibia in mid-September will be moved to an acclimatisation enclosure this month before being released into the wild, a member of the Centre's task force on the big cats has said.
Tejas, who was the seventh cheetah to die in four months at the KNP, was brought from South Africa in February this year and was about five-and-a-half years old.
Oban, one of the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia in September last year, strayed into the field near Baroda village, some 15-20 kilometres from KNP, from the free range area of the park into which he was released last month, Sheopur divisional forest officer (DFO) P K Verma told PTI.
'It's a natural phenomenon and there is nothing to worry about. But I must tell you that every cheetah which has been released in Kuno is monitored round the clock'
Cheetahs have coexisted with leopards and lions in Africa, but some officials in India consider the high leopard population in Kuno and Gandhi Sagar a problem as it would "reduce the prey biomass for cheetahs".
The Wildlife Institute of India's former dean Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala, who was part of the cheetah project in the past, told PTI that KNP has 'inadequate space' for these animals.
All forest officials and veterinarians are working very hard at the KNP, he said.
The Supreme Court declined to intervene in allegations of harassment against women dog feeders, stating it's a law and order issue. The court is hearing arguments in the stray dogs case and addressed concerns about unregulated breeding and exotic imports.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath was told by the Centre in its application moved by additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati that a status report in this regard will be filed before the court within six months on the basis of the advice of the experts on the tanslocation of Asiatic lions from Gir to Kuno.
Eight cheetahs from Namibia were released into the park in September last year as part of an ambitious project to revive the extinct cheetah population in the country.
The death of the more than four-and-a-half years old female feline is being seen as a setback to Project Cheetah, aimed at reviving the population of the world's fastest land animal in India, seven decades after they became extinct.
A bench of justices BR Gavai and Sanjay Karol told the Centre that from reports of experts and articles, it appears that KNP does not seem to be sufficient for such large number of cheetahs and the Union government may consider shifting them to other sanctuaries.
Kangana Ranaut opens a cafe in Mandi, her Lok Sabha constituency.
He said the South African cheetahs will first arrive at the Gwalior Air Force base in MP on Saturday morning and 30 minutes later they will be transported some 165km away to KNP in Sheopur district by IAF helicopters.
Discussions with South African authorities to translocate 12 cheetahs to Kuno are at an advanced stage
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