India welcomes 12 South African cheetahs

India welcomed 12 wild cheetahs from South Africa on Saturday.

They will join eight cheetahs that were flown from Namibia last year. All cheetahs have been released at the Kuno National Park in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Cheetahs historically roamed central India, the Middle East, and Africa, but their numbers have dwindled in the last decades because of hunting and loss of habitat.

The Indian government declared in January 2022 that it would reintroduce cheetahs into the country.

What to know about the arrival of cheetahs

An aircraft carrying the 12 cheetahs landed at the Gwalior Air Force base on Saturday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. 

The big cats were then flown in helicopters to the sprawling Kuno National Park. 

Delhi signed a deal with South Africa last month to import 12 cats annually for the next eight to 10 years. 

Less than 7,000 wild cheetahs in the wild

The cheetah population has severely declined globally, with fewer than 7,000 in the wild today, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The Asiatic cheetah, which once roamed India, is found only in Iran today and is classified as critically endangered.

The Indian government said it made its decision to import the big cats from South Africa since it was one of the last remaining cheetah strongholds.

Loss of habitat meant that cheetahs were declared wiped out in 1952 in India. They remain the first and the only large carnivore to have died out nationally since India's independence in 1947.

India hopes that a reintroduction of the wild cats will conserve the country's threatened grasslands.

This report was written in part with material from the Associated Press news agency.

Edited by: Sean Sinico