From Botswana to India: Kuno Park provides 9 extra cheetahs to an increasing coalition | India Information
It started with a proper handover ceremony at Sir Seretse Khama Worldwide Airport in Gaborone, and ended with the creak of crate handles being turned open within the forests of Sheopur. On Saturday, 9 cheetahs — six females and three males — accomplished a transcontinental journey from Botswana to Kuno Nationwide Park in Madhya Pradesh, changing into the third batch of African cheetahs to be reintroduced to India below Venture Cheetah.
The 9 cheetahs had been loaded aboard an IAF C-17 Globemaster operated by the 81 Squadron, the Skylords, for a flight that lasted practically ten to 12 hours and coated roughly 7,600 kilometres. The plane touched down on the Air Drive Station in Gwalior on Saturday morning, the place wildlife officers and veterinarians performed a proper inspection of the animals earlier than they had been transferred to IAF helicopters for the ultimate leg to Kuno, touchdown on the nationwide park by mid-morning.
Union Setting Minister Bhupender Yadav was current at Kuno to obtain them, symbolically releasing the cheetahs into specifically ready quarantine enclosures. “After eight cheetahs from Namibia had been first reintroduced to India on September 17, 2022, and 12 had been introduced from South Africa in February 2023, I’m thrilled to announce the arrival of 9 cheetahs from Botswana — 6 females and three males — at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Nationwide Park,” Yadav mentioned.
With the arrival of the Botswana batch, India’s cheetah depend now stands at 48. That quantity consists of 29 Indian-born cubs, a determine that has grow to be probably the most intently watched indicator of the programme’s long-term success. Since 2023, as many as 30 cubs have been born at Kuno, of which 28 have survived.
The partnership between Botswana and India is current in formal phrases however grounded in a broader dedication to international wildlife conservation. It took form in November 2025, when Botswana’s President Duma Gideon Boko dedicated to supporting India’s cheetah reintroduction effort by the donation of animals. The settlement was formalised as a government-to-government association, finally resulting in Saturday’s switch.
Earlier than the cheetahs had been cleared for journey, they had been subjected to a compulsory minimal quarantine interval of 30 days in Botswana — commonplace protocol for worldwide wildlife transfers — together with thorough veterinary assessments. A group of Botswana forest veterinarians and wildlife specialists additionally travelled to India alongside the animals and can help Indian officers by the preliminary monitoring interval at Kuno.
Botswana’s Chief Veterinary Officer on the Division of Wildlife and Nationwide Parks, Mmadi Reuben, confirmed the animals had been in good well being once they departed.
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“The cheetahs had been stored in minimal prescribed 30 days quarantine, which is a part of the process to make sure that they comply for worldwide requirements for journey, and so they have dealt with the immobilisation very nicely. We’re very blissful to have them additionally trying good at the moment as they’re being launched,” Reuben mentioned.
The 9 cheetahs have been positioned in massive, fenced quarantine enclosures at Kuno, the place they may stay for between 15 and 30 days. Throughout this era, wildlife veterinarians and forest officers will monitor their feeding behaviour, motion, response to Indian prey species and terrain, and any indicators of stress or illness. Common monitoring well being parameters might be undertaken frequently. As soon as well being is confirmed, the animals might be fitted with GPS satellite tv for pc collars for real-time monitoring forward of their eventual launch into soft-release forest areas.
Venture Cheetah Director Uttam Kumar Sharma mentioned the Cheetahs will might be stored below quarantine for a month earlier than they’re lastly launched.
The 9 animals come from a rustic that holds one of many world’s most vital cheetah populations. In line with the Division of Wildlife and Nationwide Parks of Botswana and the 2023 Conservation Standing report on Southern African cheetahs, Botswana hosts an estimated 1,694 grownup and unbiased adolescent cheetahs — roughly 24 p.c of the worldwide cheetah inhabitants of roughly 7,100 people. Their vary covers round 459,567 sq. kilometres, or about 79 p.c of the nation.
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Crucially, roughly 76.9 p.c of Botswana’s cheetahs stay not in formally protected areas however on group and business farmlands, making them uniquely tailored to sharing landscapes with human exercise and livestock. The Botswana inhabitants can be linked to cheetah populations in neighbouring Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, forming a essential element of the broader Southern African cheetah inhabitants.
The 2023 report notes that whereas Botswana’s inhabitants has remained comparatively steady over the previous twenty years, a notable achievement given the species’ decline globally, the inhabitants is below stress from declining prey species, notably springbok and impala, habitat degradation by overgrazing and veterinary fences, and the broader fragmentation of the Southern African vary. Fragmentation, the report warns, dangers genetic inbreeding and will additional threaten the species’ viability.