India will receive four cheetahs from Kenya later this year as part of an ongoing wildlife conservation and translocation effort. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the transfer after inspecting Gujarat’s Banni grasslands in March.
The four cheetahs, consisting of two male-female pairs, will relocate to the Banni conservation facility in Kutch. They will join other cheetahs from Botswana as part of the project’s breeding and acclimatisation plan. The 500-hectare facility mimics Kenya’s savannah habitat and features nearly 10 kilometers of chain-link fencing to keep the cheetahs safe from escape or encounters with other predators.
Before arriving at Banni, the Kenyan cheetahs will undergo quarantine at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where authorities have set up a dedicated holding facility. This move falls under India’s Project Cheetah initiative, which aims to reintroduce the species after local extinction in the 1950s.
Last year, discussions between India and Kenya targeted translocating eight to ten cheetahs by 2026. Kenya joins Botswana and Namibia in collaborating with India, and officials plan to bring up to 12 cheetahs to Banni within a year. Successful breeding at Banni could eventually lead to the release of cheetahs into free-range areas in Kutch, as decided by the NTCA.
India currently hosts 48 cheetahs, including 28 India-born cubs, alongside arrivals from Namibia in 2022 and South Africa in 2023. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) reports that only 800 to 1,200 adult cheetahs remain in the wild, making the species one of Africa’s most threatened big cats
About The Author
