Their names are Obaan and Asha. This pair of Namibian cheetahs have been released into the wild in India, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav announced on Sunday. This initiative aims to reintroduce the cats that disappeared from the country more than seventy years ago.

“Both cheetahs are fine,” Bhupender Yadav wrote on Twitter after being released in the Kuno National Park in central India. The cheetahs have just completed a stay of several months in their acclimatization enclosure.

About a hundred individuals in ten years

The two animals were the first to be released from eight cheetahs that arrived from Namibia last September, based on a 2020 decision by the Supreme Court of India. This decision permitted the release of the species on an experimental basis.

Twelve more cheetahs arrived from South Africa last month. Authorities hope that once released, the cheetahs will reproduce and the population will reach around 100 individuals within ten years. This is the first intercontinental relocation of cheetahs, the fastest land animals on the planet.

Species considered “vulnerable”

India was once home to the Asiatic cheetah. But the last specimen was killed in 1947 by an Indian prince, and the species was officially declared extinct in the country in 1952. Kuno National Park was chosen for the introduction of the African cheetah – a different species from the Asian cheetah – because of its unique nature. the vast grasslands and abundant prey it has.

Cheetahs are considered “vulnerable”. list of endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Currently only about 7,000 remain, mainly in the African savanna.

Its survival is primarily threatened by the reduction of its natural habitat and the loss of its prey due to human hunting, land development for other purposes, and climate change.