Two more female cheetahs have been released into the open forest at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh today. With this, the total number of cheetahs roaming freely in Kuno has gone up to 16. Both female cheetahs are among the nine brought from Botswana in February 2026. They have been gradually released after successfully completing their quarantine period.
Earlier, one female cheetah was also released on May 13. The Field Director of the Cheetah Project said that all the cheetahs are healthy and adjusting well to the forest environment. Advanced radio telemetry systems and special field teams have been deployed to monitor them.
‘Project Cheetah’ was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022 on his birthday at Kuno National Park. He personally released the first 8 cheetahs brought from Namibia. Wildlife experts say that the Botswana cheetahs bring greater genetic diversity. This will help build a healthy and long-term cheetah population at Kuno. Plans are also being made to relocate some of these cheetahs to other sanctuaries like Gandhi Sagar and Nauradehi in the coming time.
