India Released 20 Cheetahs Into Empty Grasslands — 3 Years Later, No One Expected This

For seventy years there was not a single wild cheetah left in India — the species was declared extinct in 1952. Then, in September 2022, India attempted something no one had ever tried: the world's first intercontinental translocation of a big cat. Eight cheetahs from Namibia, then twelve from South Africa — twenty of the rarest cats on Earth, released into Kuno National Park. At first it looked like a disaster. Cats began to die, critics called it a vanity project, and the headlines turned brutal. But three years later, something is happening in that park that almost no one predicted: cubs born on Indian soil, a second generation born to an India-born mother, and a population climbing back from the brink — even as the project stays fragile and controversial. This is the story of India's twenty cheetahs, and what the empty grasslands finally gave back. #cheetah #projectcheetah #wildlife #india #rewilding