India announced on Wednesday March 29 that one of eight cheetahs relocated from Namibia had given birth to four cubs, decades after the extinction of the species was declared in 1952 in the South Asian country.

India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav posted photos and videos of cheetah cubs on Twitter, calling the event a ” capital “.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed this “amazing news”, also on Twitter. According to Indian media, the second cheetah from Namibia is expected to give birth soon.

Eight Namibian cheetahs were released into India in 2022. Earlier this year, twelve more cheetahs came from South Africa to join the first contingent.

Precious fur

The announcement of the birth of the four cheetah cubs came days after the death of one of the Namibian cheetahs in the Kuno National Park, a nature reserve located 320 km south of New Delhi, due to kidney failure.

The Asian cheetah has been an officially endangered species in India since 1952. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is said to have killed the last three specimens recorded in India in the late 1940s.

This subspecies, which once roamed the Middle East, Central Asia and India, is now only found in very small numbers in Iran.

The disappearance of the cheetah in India is mainly due to hunters, who covet its tawny fur covered in round spots, but also due to the loss of its habitat. Cheetahs are classified as ” prone to “ on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).