Cheetahs Returns to India After 70 Years

Cheetahs are set to roam in India for the first time since they were declared officially extinct in 1952.

A group of eight cats arrived from Namibia on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on Saturday.

They will undergo a month-long ‘quarantine’ before being released in a national park in central India.

Cheetahs formerly shared jungles with other big cats like lions and tigers but “disappeared 70 years ago.”

“They are the world’s fastest land animals, capable of reaching speeds of 70 miles (113km) an hour.”

This is the first time a large carnivore is being moved from one continent to another and being reintroduced in the wild.

At least 20 cheetahs are coming to India from South Africa and Namibia, home to more than a third of the world’s 7,000 cheetahs.

The first batch of eight – five females and three males, aged between two and six years – arrived from “Windhoek in Namibia” to the Indian city of Gwalior on Saturday.

BBC /Shakirat Sadiq