India to bring in Namibia-origin cheetahs to reverse extinction: Officials

While a commercial civil plane will bring in cheetahs from Namibia to Jaipur, Rajasthan. The Indian Air Force (IAF) will then deploy its Chinook heavy lift helicopters to ferry the felines from the Jaipur to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the national park's 'Reintroduction of the cheetah' project on September 17, as per government officials.

They also said that PM Modi would also witness the release of the cheetahs into the dense forests of Madhya Pradesh.

The ferocious felines will be reintroduced in India, 70 years after being declared extinct in 1952.

The High Commission of India in Windhoek, Namibia had tweeted the visual of the Indian aircraft.

"A special bird touches down in the Land of the Brave to carry goodwill ambassadors to the Land of the Tiger," the High Commission of India in Windhoek said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Indian Oil Corporation Limited has decided to contribute Rs502.2 million over a period of five years for the transcontinental relocation of the cheetahs.

Earlier, the company had signed an MoU with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on August 2, 2022, in this regard.

This comes under the ambit of the Indian government's ambitious Project Cheetah, which is being undertaken in accordance with the guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

India has a long history of wildlife conservation.

One of the most successful wildlife conservation ventures in the country's history was 'Project Tiger', which was initiated in 1972. It not only contributed to the conservation of tigers but also to the entire ecosystem.

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