Project Cheetah was approved by the Supreme Court in 2020.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today released two of eight cheetahs into Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park. The cheetahs were released from enclosure number one following which about 70 meters away, another cheetah was released from the second enclosure.
Sporting a fedora hat, the PM was also seen photographing the felines with a professional camera.
This historic mission called Project Cheetah marks the first time a wild southern African cheetah will be introduced in any another continent.
Project Cheetah was approved by the Supreme Court in 2020 as a pilot programme to reintroduce the species to India.
The plane with cheetahs arrived at Gwalior's Maharajpura airbase, operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF), shortly before 8 am.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia oversaw the arrangement as the cheetahs were transported to the air force chopper which flew them to Kuno National Park.
Cheetahs were declared extinct from India in 1952 but today eight cheetahs, five females and three males were brought from Africa's Namibia to revitalise and diversify the country's wildlife and habitat.
The eight cheetahs were brought in a cargo aircraft in Gwalior as part of an inter-continental cheetah translocation project. Later, the Indian Air Force choppers carried the cheetahs to Kuno National Park from Gwalior Air Force Station.
Radio collars have been installed in all the cheetahs to be monitored through satellite. Apart from this, there is a dedicated monitoring team behind each cheetah who will be monitoring their location for 24 hours.
The cheetahs will in turn help in the restoration of open forest and grassland ecosystems in India.
They will furthermore help conserve biodiversity and enhance the ecosystem services like water security, carbon sequestration and soil moisture conservation.