The cheetahs will be released in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno-Palpur National Park tomorrow.
A first look of the cheetahs that will be brought from Namibia to India was shared by news agency ANI on Twitter today. The one-minute-long video shows two cheetahs resting under a tree in what is believed to be a national park.
Madhya Pradesh's Kuno-Palpur National Park (KPNP) is set to welcome eight cheetahs tomorrow under an agreement signed earlier this year between India and Namibia.
A female cheetah and two brothers who hunt together as a team are among the eight big cats that will be part of the reintroduction project.
The cheetahs will be brought to the country in a special cargo flight and flown to the national park the same day, officials have said. The cargo flight will now directly land in Gwalior instead of Jaipur as planned earlier. The decision, officials said, will save time.
"The special cargo flight with cheetahs will land now around 6 am in Gwalior tomorrow. After customs clearance and other formalities, the cheetahs will be flown in a chopper to Kuno National Park," sources in the government told NDTV.
Special wooden kits, which have the facility of air movement, have been used to bring cheetah, news agency ANI reported quoting an official.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the large cats in the national park located in Sheopur district of the state tomorrow as part of his efforts to revitalise and diversify the country's wildlife and habitat, his office said in New Delhi.
The large carnivore got completely wiped out from India due to their use for coursing, sport hunting, over-hunting and habitat loss. The government declared the cheetah extinct in the country in 1952.