Project Cheetah about correcting historical wrong committed by humanity, says Bhupender Yadav

Project Cheetah is framed by wildlife officials and conservationists as an attempt to correct a historical wrong — the extinction of the cheetah in India, a ...

What Happened

Project Cheetah is framed by wildlife officials and conservationists as an attempt to correct a historical wrong — the extinction of the cheetah in India, a process accelerated by hunting, habitat destruction, and prey depletion during and before the colonial period.
The cheetah is the only large carnivore species to have gone extinct in independent India, making its reintroduction a symbolically and ecologically significant act.
The first phase of reintroductions brought 8 cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, in September 2022; a further 12 arrived from South Africa in February 2023.
In March 2023, a cheetah delivered four cubs — the first live cheetah births in India in over 70 years.
By early 2024, the population at Kuno had grown through births but was also affected by significant mortality: 10 adults died within the first year and a half, and all surviving adults and cubs were placed in protective enclosures by the project's second anniversary in September 2024.
In March 2026, nine additional cheetahs arrived at Kuno from Botswana, representing a renewed phase of the translocation programme.

Static Topic Bridges

Asiatic Cheetah Extinction in India: History and Causes

The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) was once widespread across India, from the Punjab plains to the Deccan plateau, used for coursing game by Mughal emperors and later by colonial rulers and Indian princes. The species was formally declared locally extinct in India in 1952, following the last documented killing in 1947 in the region now known as Chhattisgarh.

Akbar the Great (r. 1556–1605) reportedly kept up to 1,000 cheetahs and used them extensively for blackbuck and chinkara hunts.
Emperor Jahangir formally recorded the first captive-bred cheetah in history in 1613.
The combination of intensive sport hunting during the British Raj, deforestation reducing open grassland habitat, and prey depletion through colonial-era hunting drove the cheetah to the edge of extinction by the early 20th century.
The last confirmed sighting of three Asiatic cheetahs in India occurred in 1947 in Koriya, when they were shot by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo.
The Asiatic cheetah subspecies is now critically endangered globally, with fewer than 50 individuals surviving only in Iran.

Connection to this news: The "historical wrong" narrative of Project Cheetah is grounded in this documented extinction trajectory — a combination of human-caused habitat loss and direct persecution that removed the species from a range it had occupied for millennia, and that the reintroduction programme seeks to reverse.

Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and Conservation Frameworks

India's primary legislative framework for wildlife conservation is the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The Act established a system of protected areas (National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries), prohibited hunting of scheduled species, and created the legal basis for species recovery plans. The cheetah was added to Schedule I (highest protection level) of the Act, though this was effectively post-facto given its extinction predated the Act.

Schedule I of the WPA provides absolute protection — hunting, poaching, and trade are non-bailable criminal offences.
The Act established the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which oversees Project Cheetah in addition to Project Tiger.
India's Supreme Court played a central role in enabling Project Cheetah: an initial 2012 SC order restricted cheetah introduction; this was reversed in 2020, clearing the legal path for translocation.
Project Cheetah is governed by the Cheetah Introduction in India Action Plan (2021), developed by NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
The action plan calls for introducing 50 cheetahs over 5 years across multiple sites, with Kuno National Park as the primary site and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary as potential secondary sites.

Connection to this news: The legal, institutional, and scientific framework for Project Cheetah — built over a decade of court interventions, inter-governmental negotiations with Namibia and South Africa, and habitat assessment — represents the formal mechanism through which the "historical correction" is being operationalised.

Cheetah Reintroduction: Science of Translocation and Challenges

Wildlife translocation — the deliberate movement of wild animals from one location to another — is a recognised tool of conservation biology, particularly for restoring functionally extinct or locally extinct species. The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published guidelines requiring habitat suitability assessments, prey base evaluation, disease screening, and post-release monitoring before any translocation. Project Cheetah's use of African cheetahs (southeast African subspecies, A. j. jubatus) rather than the Asiatic subspecies (not available in viable numbers) has been scientifically debated, though the NTCA position holds that the two subspecies are sufficiently similar ecologically.

Kuno National Park covers approximately 748 sq. km (core area) in Madhya Pradesh, selected for its open woodland and grassland mosaic, historical prey availability, and prior tiger population removal.
Cheetah's spatial requirements are large: studies indicate individual home ranges of 500–3,000 sq. km in African landscapes, suggesting Kuno alone is insufficient at full population scale.
Adult cheetah mortality in the first 18 months: ~40%; cub mortality: ~29.4% — significantly above benchmarks set in the Action Plan.
As of September 2024, all surviving cheetahs remained in protective enclosures rather than free-ranging in the wild, indicating the wild-release phase has been delayed.
March 2024 saw six more cubs born, raising total cheetah count (including cubs) to 27 before subsequent deaths reduced the number.

Connection to this news: The framing of Project Cheetah as a "correction of historical wrong" must be contextualised against the translocation science: success requires not just the physical act of bringing cheetahs back, but sustained habitat management, prey restoration, and minimisation of human-wildlife conflict — challenges that the high mortality rates in the initial phase have thrown into sharp relief.

Significance of Large Carnivore Reintroduction in Ecosystem Restoration

Large carnivores are "keystone species" — their presence (or absence) has disproportionate effects on ecosystem structure and function through trophic cascades. The reintroduction of apex predators or mesopredators like cheetahs can regulate prey populations, reduce overgrazing, and restore grassland and scrub habitats. In India's semi-arid grasslands, which are among the most threatened ecosystems (not formally categorised as "forests" under Indian law and therefore excluded from Forest Conservation Act protections), cheetahs also serve as umbrella species — their conservation drives protection of the broader habitat.

Indian grasslands and savannas are considered critically underprotected; less than 5% have protected area status.
Prey species for cheetahs in India include chinkara (Indian gazelle), blackbuck, and four-horned antelope — species whose populations have also been depleted by poaching and habitat loss.
The "trophic cascade" effect of wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone (USA) is the canonical global case study for carnivore reintroduction benefits.
India's biodiversity protection has historically been biased toward forests; Project Cheetah, by centering a grassland-dependent predator, implicitly makes the case for grassland conservation policy reform.

Connection to this news: The characterisation of Project Cheetah as correcting a historical wrong extends beyond the cheetah itself — it is simultaneously an argument for the conservation of Indian grasslands, a neglected ecosystem whose decline directly caused, and continues to threaten, the conditions needed for the cheetah's long-term survival.

Key Facts & Data

Last confirmed cheetah sighting in India: 1947 (Koriya, present-day Chhattisgarh)
Cheetah declared locally extinct in India: 1952
Asiatic cheetah global wild population: fewer than 50 (Iran only)
First batch: 8 cheetahs from Namibia, September 2022, Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh
Second batch: 12 cheetahs from South Africa, February 2023
Third batch: 9 cheetahs from Botswana, March 2026
First cheetah cubs born in India in 70+ years: March 2023 (4 cubs)
Adult mortality in first 18 months: ~40%; cub mortality: ~29.4%
Kuno National Park core area: ~748 sq. km, Madhya Pradesh
Action Plan target: 50 cheetahs over 5 years across multiple sites
Supreme Court reversed its 2012 restriction on cheetah introduction in 2020