New Delhi, 4 Dec

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Project Cheetah aimed to revive India’s lost ecological heritage, and invited wildlife enthusiasts worldwide to visit the country to witness the wild cat thriving in its new habitat. In a post on X on International Cheetah Day, he extended greetings to conservationists, saying the government launched the project three years ago to safeguard the species and restore its ecosystem.

Modi said India is now home to several cheetahs, including many born in the wild, with populations growing in Kuno National Park and the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary. As of December 2025, India sustains 32 cheetahs, including 21 India-born cubs. In November, an India-born female, Mukhi, delivered five cubs.

However, experts maintain the project faces ecological challenges. They argue that India lacks suitable habitat and prey density for free-roamingAfrican cheetahs and warn.

Cheetahs, once found across Central India, went extinct in the country in 1952, with the last confirmed sightings in 1948. Globally, the species is listed as “vulnerable’’ on Red List, with only 6,517 mature individuals remaining. Asiatic cheetahs, now confined to Iran, number fewer than 50, prompting India to import African cheetahs instead. Conservationists also stress that African cheetahs are not the subspecies that roamed India, making them an ecologically mismatched choice.

Experts caution that Kuno National Park, with a capacity for around 21 cheetahs, may not sustain a long-term population, noting that each cheetah requires roughly 100 sq km territory.