India to get more than 100 Cheetahs from South Africa

India to get more than 100 Cheetahs from South Africa: In an ambitious attempt to reintroduce the spotted cats in the south Asian nation, South Africa announced that it has achieved an agreement to transport more than 100 cheetahs to India. The environment ministry said an initial batch of 12 cheetahs would be flown to India next month, after eight cheetahs arrived from Namibia last September.

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The goal is to develop a “viable and secure cheetah population” by translocating an additional 12 animals per year for the following eight to ten years, according to the ministry.

Reintroducing of Cheetah in India:

India was once home to the Asiatic cheetah but the animal was declared extinct there by 1952, primarily because of habitat loss and deaths at the hands of hunters seeking their distinctive spotted hides.

Efforts to reintroduce the animals gathered pace in 2020 when India’s Supreme Court ruled that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be brought into the country at a “carefully chosen location” on an experimental basis.

The negotiations for the deal with South Africa took a long time, and the first cheetahs were initially expected to be flown to India in August of last. They have been living in quarantine in the meantime. Officials said the previous transfer from Namibia marked the first intercontinental relocation of cheetahs, the planet’s fastest land animal.