The cheetah vanished from India in 1952. The last three individuals — a mother and her two cubs — were shot by a maharaja in what was then the Central Provinces. Within years, the species that had once been so embedded in Indian culture that Mughal emperors kept trained cheetahs as hunting companions was gone from the subcontinent entirely.
Seventy years later, in September 2022, the cheetah came back. Eight Namibian cheetahs — flown across the world in a historic translocation — were released into Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. It was the first intercontinental reintroduction of a large carnivore in history. The world watched.
Now, in February 2026, that project has reached a milestone that few thought achievable so quickly: 38 cheetahs on Indian soil — including three new cubs born to a South African female named Gamini, in the ninth successful litter recorded since the programme began.
**A Second Litter for Gamini**
Gamini is one of 12 South African cheetahs that joined the original Namibian cohort in a second translocation in early 2023. She had already produced cubs before — making her one of the programme's most successful breeding females. Her three new cubs, born in February 2026, add to a growing cohort of cheetahs that have never lived anywhere but India.
They are, in the most literal sense, India's own cheetahs now.
**The Numbers Tell a Story of Remarkable Progress**
When the first cheetahs arrived at Kuno in 2022, the initial population was just eight animals. The goal — cautious, carefully worded — was to establish a small but viable breeding population over a decade.
The reality has moved faster: - Eight Namibian cheetahs arrived in September 2022 - Twelve South African cheetahs arrived in early 2023 - India's total cheetah population now stands at **38** - **Nine successful litters** have been recorded on Indian soil - Wild-born cubs that have grown to adulthood are already establishing their own territories
The programme has not been without difficulty. Early in the project, several cheetahs died — from infections, injury, and in one case from infighting — and these losses were sobering reminders of the fragility of any reintroduction effort. But the overall trajectory has been unmistakably positive.
**Why India? Why Now?**
India's decision to reintroduce cheetahs was driven by both ecological and cultural logic. As apex predators of open savannah ecosystems, cheetahs play a structuring role — their presence shifts the behaviour of prey animals, which in turn changes how grasslands are grazed and how vegetation grows. India's semi-arid grasslands, which had been degrading for decades, could benefit from this ecological engineering.
Culturally, the cheetah holds a special place in Indian history. The Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have kept 9,000 cheetahs during his reign, used for coursing deer. The animal's name itself — 'cheetah' — comes from the Sanskrit word *citrakāya*, meaning 'spotted body.' Its extinction was, in the view of many Indian conservationists, an unfinished wound.
**The Broader Vision**
Kuno National Park is the launch point, not the destination. India's Project Cheetah envisions eventually establishing multiple populations across several national parks — with Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary among the proposed expansion sites. The goal is a self-sustaining metapopulation of Indian cheetahs: animals that breed, disperse, and live wild across a network of protected landscapes.
That vision requires sustained political will, funding, habitat management, and community engagement with the people living alongside cheetah territory. None of those things are guaranteed. But with 38 animals now in India — nine of them born there — the foundation exists in a way it didn't four years ago.
A maharaja ended India's cheetahs in 1952. A government programme, two nations' cooperation, and dozens of dedicated conservation workers are bringing them back.
Gamini's cubs are alive. 🐆
*Sources: Economic Times India (February 2026) · Manorama Year Book · Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India · Wildlife Institute of India*
