India all set to get Cheetahs back on its soil: All we know so far

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India all set to get Cheetahs back on its soil: All we know so far (Image: Twitter/IndiainNamibia)
India all set to get Cheetahs back on its soil: All we know so far (Image: Twitter/IndiainNamibia)

New Delhi : It has been over seventy years when Cheetahs got extinct from Indian soil, with continuous efforts the day is soon to return when the extinct animal will be seen walking in India. On September 17, 2022, eight big cats will be brought from Namibia under a special agreement.

A special B747 jumbo jet has been sent from India to Namibia to bring the 8 big cats. The plane reached Namibia on Thursday, it has been painted specially with a tiger print on the front. The plane will take off from Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek.

Out of eight Cheetahs, 3 are male and five are females.

On September 17, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the wild cats in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. This is among the best gifts PM Modi may receive on his birthday.

The Return of Cheetahs in India

The cheetahs had gone extinct from India in 1952. The Indian government promised to bring back the big cats to different locations of the nation. In 2009, CCF held a meeting with the Indian government and proposed their plan to bring back the extinct animal on Indian turf.

Since then a lot of meetings have been done with the Namibia administration to churn out a proper agreement to make it happen. CCF is a not-for-profit organisation, headquartered in Namibia, which works towards saving and rehabilitating cheetahs in the wild.

The Supreme Court in 2020 approved the project as a pilot programme to reintroduce the species.

In July 2020, India and the Republic of Namibia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) around the conservation of cheetah. The MoU includes Namibia's participation in Project Cheetah, with the government agreeing to donate the first eight individuals to launch the programme.

All that we know about the eight cheetahs

A total of eight cheetah's will be brought to India from Namibia. Three of them are males aged between 4.5 years to 5.5 years; five of them are females aged between two and five years.

Each cheetah has been vaccinated, fitted with a satellite collar and have been kept in isolation at the CCF centre in Namibia.

All the eight cheetah’s will be brought first to Jaipur in a special B747-400 passenger jet. It has been designed in a way that the vets can access all the animals anytime during the flight. From Jaipur, on September 17, they will be shifted to the Kuno National Park in a helicopter. PM Narendra Modi will personally welcome them in Madhya Pradesh.