Project Cheetah: How A Species Declared Extinct During Nehru Era Returned To India Under Modi Govt

Key points

• Project Cheetah: How A Species Declared Extinct During Nehru Era Returned To India Under Modi Govt Published By, Last Updated: June 04, 2026, 15:34 IST Declared extinct in India in 1952, the species returned seven decades later through Project Cheetah, with the first batch from Namibia released at Kuno Park in 2022. Rapid Read File photo of two cheetahs at Kuno Park.
• In 1952, the Government of India officially declared the cheetah extinct, making it the only large carnivore species to have gone extinct in independent India.
• For decades after that, the animal remained a symbol of what India had lost from its wild landscapes.
• That absence began to be reversed on September 17, 2022, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch of eight cheetahs brought from Namibia into Kuno Park in Madhya Pradesh.
• The moment marked the formal launch of Project Cheetah, described by the government as...