Cheetahs from Namibia will be moved to India as part of an agreement between India and Namibia. The first shipment of eight large cats, the fastest land mammal in the world, will arrive the following month.
The Madhya Pradesh state’s national park, which has an abundance of prey, will be their new home. Captive breeding will also be established there.
According to reports, 50 cheetahs would be relocated over the next five years, some of them coming from South Africa.
Asiatic cheetahs, which once roamed India, were deemed extinct there seventy years ago.
According to Delhi, the relocation is being done in accordance with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s regulations.
The two nations will pool their resources and expertise to further cheetah conservation in their respective home regions.
When appropriate, they will exchange individuals for training and instruction in wildlife management, along with the sharing of technical know-how, in the areas of climate change, environmental governance, environmental impact assessments, pollution, and waste management.
The government “asked for devoting special emphasis for the protection of the cheetahs in central India” and “bold experiments to preserve the cheetah” were urged at the inaugural wildlife board meeting of Independent India in 1952.
Negotiations to introduce the Asiatic cheetah to India in exchange for Asiatic lions then started in the 1970s with the Shah of Iran. It was decided that the African cheetah would be introduced in India due to the tiny number of Asiatic cheetahs in Iran and their genetic resemblance to one another.