On 29th March 2023, Siyaya – a female cheetah translocated from Namibia to India last year gave birth to four cubs in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. This is the first time in the last 79 years that a cheetah cub has been born in India.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav shared it in a tweet. He tweeted, “Congratulations India! A momentous event in our wildlife conservation history during Amrit Kaal! I am delighted to share that four cubs have been born to one of the cheetahs translocated to India on 17th September 2022, under the visionary leadership of PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji.”
He wrote in a next tweet, “I congratulate the entire team of Project Cheetah for their relentless efforts in bringing back cheetahs to India and for their efforts in correcting an ecological wrong done in the past.”
The cubs were born to Siyaya, a female cheetah that was translocated to India from the Gobabis region of southern Namibia. Siyaya was two years old when she was brought to India. After decades, these are the first cheetah cubs to be born in India. In 1952, the cheetah was declared extinct in India. Its restoration into the wild is part of a larger attempt to reintroduce the species to its historical habitat.
Last year, eight cheetahs from Namibia were brought to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. On September 17, 2022, PM Narendra Modi released eight cheetahs – five males and three females imported from Namibia – at the national park. On February 18, a second batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa arrived in Kuno National Park.
On Monday, 27th March 2023, it was reported that Sasha, who was one of the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia and introduced in Kuno National Park last year, passed away due to a kidney ailment. It was noted that Sasha had been suffering from this ailment even before her arrival in India. The birth of the cubs comes only days after it was revealed that one of the cheetahs transported from Namibia had deceased.