India to get 12 cheetahs from South Africa next month

India will receive 12 cheetahs from South Africa next month which will join eight others received from Namibia in September as part of an ambitious plan to reintroduce the cats to the country after 70 years.

India plans to transport an additional 12 animals per year for the next eight to 10 years as part of an agreement signed by the two countries, India’s Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister said on Friday.

Cheetah populations in many countries are declining. South Africa, where cats are running out of space, is an exception.

South Africa’s National Biodiversity Institute, National Parks, Cheetah Range Expansion Project and the Endangered Wildlife Trust will collaborate with their Indian counterparts, the ministry said in a statement.

Eight cheetahs flown in from Namibia in September were released in the Kuno National Park in central India.

Cheetahs were once widespread in India but disappeared in 1952 due to hunting and habitat loss.

India hopes that importing African cheetahs will help efforts to protect the country’s endangered, and generally neglected grasslands.

There are less than 7,000 adult cheetahs in the wild worldwide, and they now occupy less than nine percent of their original range. Habitat shrinkage, due to increased human population and climate change, is a major threat.