NEW DELHI — India welcomed 12 cheetahs from South Africa on Saturday that may be part of eight others it obtained from Namibia final yr as a part of an bold drive to reintroduce the large cats within the nation after 70 years.

An plane carrying the cheetahs landed at Gwalior Air Pressure base, the Press Belief of India information company reported. The cats will then be flown in helicopters to Kuno Nationwide Park in India’s Madhya Pradesh state, the place they are going to be launched into quarantine enclosures.

In January, India stated it deliberate to import 12 cats yearly for the subsequent eight to 10 years as a part of an settlement signed by the 2 African nations.

Cheetah populations in most nations are declining. South Africa, the place the cats are working out of house, is an exception.

The eight cheetahs flown from Namibia had been launched into the sprawling Kuno Nationwide Park in central India in September.

Cheetahs had been as soon as widespread in India however grew to become extinct in 1952 from looking and lack of habitat. They continue to be the primary and solely predator to die out since India’s independence in 1947. India hopes that importing African cheetahs will help efforts to preserve the nation’s threatened and largely uncared for grasslands.

There are fewer than 7,000 grownup cheetahs within the wild globally, and so they now inhabit lower than 9% of their unique vary. Shrinking habitat, because of the growing human inhabitants and local weather change, is a large risk.