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.
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.
In the clip of about 40 seconds, a man is seen pouring water from a can into a pan, following which five cheetahs sitting under the shadow in the vicinity walk up to the utensil and start drinking the water.
After releasing cheetahs in special enclosures at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told 'cheetah mitras' (friends) to protect the carnivores and ensure that human-animal conflict is avoided.
Kangana Ranaut opens a cafe in Mandi, her Lok Sabha constituency.
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 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.
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.
Shaurya was found not walking properly by the tracking team around 11 am after which the wild animal was tranquilised and efforts were made to revive the feline, but they failed, said the statement.
Jwala (Namibian name Siyaya) had also given birth to four cubs last March. However, only one of them survived.
All forest officials and veterinarians are working very hard at the KNP, he said.
This is the fourth cheetah litter on Indian soil and the first litter of cheetahs brought from South Africa, Yadav informed.
One more African cheetah died in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) on Tuesday due to suspected infighting, a senior forest department official said, the seventh feline fatality in four months.
Notably, five adult cheetahs and three cubs have died at KNP in Sheopur district of the state since March this year.
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.
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.
After being rescued, Oban was brought back to the KNP and released into the Palpur forest area, the official said.
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.
Cheetah Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, was brought from Namibia to KNP in Sheopur district in September 2022. She gave birth to four cubs in the last week of March this year.
A forest department official blamed the sweltering heat for the death of this cub's three siblings on Tuesday.
"Remaining cheetahs from this batch of eight will be released in the wild in a staggered manner," he said, without disclosing any timeline.
The Madhya Pradesh forest department has asked the Centre for an "alternate" site for cheetahs currently introduced at the Kuno National Park, which has seen the death of two felines in less than a month, with officials citing lack of logistical support and space.
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.
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.
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.
Yadav's comments came amid concern expressed by some experts on the cheetah project and that some recent deaths could possibly be due to infection caused by radio collars though that is highly unusual and collars have been used in wildlife conservation in India for over two decades.
The death of 40 per cent of cheetahs translocated from South Africa and Namibia to the Kuno National Park (KNP) in less than one year doesn't present a "good picture", the Supreme Court said on Thursday, and asked the Centre to not make it a prestige issue and explore the possibility of shifting the animals to different sanctuaries.
It also said the cheetahs will be allowed to move out of KNP and will not necessarily be "recaptured unless they venture into areas where they are in significant danger".
The second batch 12 cheetahs was on Saturday brought to the KNP from South Africa. On September 17 last year, the first group of eight cheetahs from Namibia was released into the KNP at a function by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
These include Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh Bulge, Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and enclosure of Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan.
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.
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.
The central government's ambitious Project Cheetah is facing a major problem, with the animals translocated from South Africa developing a "winter cover", a thick coat of fur, in anticipation of African winter, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.
One more cheetah has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, making it the sixth adult feline to have died since March, according to a statement from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department on Wednesday.
A formal signing of an agreement is holding up their inter-continental translocation, wildlife experts have said.
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.
There are now 10 male cheetahs and as many females at MP's Kuno National Park.
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.
Suraj was found lying still in Palpur East Forest Range's Masavani beat by a monitoring team on Friday morning.
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