Namibian cheetah named Aasha has given birth to three healthy cubs at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had named the cheetah, Aasha. The cubs have been fathered by a wanderer cheetah named Pawan.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the good news and said:
"Purrs in the wild! Thrilled to share that Kuno National Park has welcomed three new members. The cubs have been born to Namibian Cheetah Aasha. This is a roaring success for Project Cheetah, envisioned by PM Shri @narendramodiji to restore ecological balance (sic)."
The union minister congratulated all the experts involved in the project, the Kuno wildlife officials and wildlife enthusiasts across India.
Purrs in the wild!
January 3, 2024
Thrilled to share that Kuno National Park has welcomed three new members. The cubs have been born to Namibian Cheetah Aasha.
This is a roaring success for Project Cheetah, envisioned by PM Shri @narendramodi ji to restore ecological balance.
My big congrats… pic.twitter.com/c1fXvVJN4CIndia has brought cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa as part of its ambitious Cheetah Reintroduction Project. Cheetahs went extinct in India in 1952 and have been reintroduced after almost seven decades.
In March 2023, the Ministry reported that Jwala, also brought from Namibia, had birthed four cubs. However, only one of them survived.
Today, there are 18 cheetahs at the Kuno National Park; 14 adults and 4 cubs. While a majority of these are in enclosed environments, two cheetahs are in the wild.
"We have plans to release one or two more cheetahs in the jungle soon. Earlier, of the three cheetahs released in the wild, Agni, was brought back on December 25, after it crossed KNP territory and reached Rajasthan. Now, once again Agni along with Vayu will be released into the jungle within a week or two,” said divisional forest officer, Thirukural R.
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