Cheetah translocated to India from Namibia gives birth to four cubs Environment Minister
New Delhi, March 29 (PTI) Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on Wednesday that one of the leopards that migrated to India from Namibia has given birth to four cubs.
He noted that it was an important event in the history of wildlife conservation in India during Amrita Gal.
“Happy to share that four cubs were born to one of the leopards transferred to India on 17 September 2022 under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji (sic),” he tweeted.
The Minister also appreciated the entire team of Project Cheetah for their tireless efforts to bring back the big carnivore to India and right the ecological wrong of the past.
Under the ambitious cheetah reintroduction programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released eight spotted cats – five females and three males – from Namibia on his 72nd birthday on September 17 last year at an isolation compound in Kuno in Madhya Pradesh
One of the Namibian leopards, Sasha, died on Monday of a kidney-related ailment, forest and wildlife officials in Madhya Pradesh said.
In the second translocation, 12 leopards were flown in from South Africa and released in Kuno on February 18.
Cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been completely extirpated from India due to over-hunting and habitat loss.
The last leopard died in 1947 in the Koria district of present-day Chhattisgarh and the species was declared extinct in 1952.
