Kochi: Twelve cheetahs from South Africa will land on Indian soil on February 18, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav announced in New Delhi on Thursday.This will be the first batch of cheetahs from South Africa, after the country signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India earlier this year to this effect, post a delay of several months. The cheetahs will join the eight other cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park that came in from Namibia on September 17 last year as part of Project Cheetah, which aims to introduce the African cheetah in some parts of India that were home to Asiatic cheetahs more than seven decades ago.“The Government of India is optimistic about the success of Project Cheetah with the active support and involvement of international experts from South Africa and Namibia, scientists, veterinarians, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Indian Oil Corporation and local communities,” the ministry said in a press release.Cheetahs from South AfricaThe 12 individuals coming from South Africa will include seven males and five females. The animals will be brought in from the Phinda and Rooiberg Reserves in the African nation. The Indian Air Force will conduct the translocation: the animals will be flown from Johannesburg to Gwalior by an Indian Air Force Boeing C-17 GlobeMaster and brought to Kuno from Gwalior via helicopters. The cheetahs will depart from O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Friday evening and will arrive at the Gwalior Air Force base in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday morning before being transported shortly thereafter to Sheopur near Kuno, PTI reported.A delegation of cheetah experts, veterinarians and senior officials will be accompanying the cheetahs during the transcontinental translocation exercise, per the government press release. All 12 cheetahs will be released in specially-created enclosures at Kuno National Park to complete the mandatory quarantine period and would be “intensively monitored”, it added.The arrival of the 12 cheetahs comes after India and South Africa inked the MoU to bring cheetahs from the African country, the government confirmed on January 27 this year. Per the government, the MoU “facilitates cooperation” between the two countries to establish a “viable and secure cheetah population in India”, and aims to promote conservation and ensure that “expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity built, to promote cheetah conservation”. Dozen cheetahs will be translocated to India from South Africa every year for the next “eight-ten years”, the ministry said.However, the MoU faced a long delay. Experts had raised concerns in December 2022 that the delay – which led to the 12 cheetahs being quarantined in South African centres for more than four months – may have affected the animals’ fitness due to a prolonged period of inactivity.The translocation of cheetahs from South Africa to India comes three years after it was first mooted, PTI reported on February 16.Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav announces the translocation of twelve Cheetahs from South Africa to India, which will happen on February 18 2023, on Thursday, February 16, 2023. Photo: PIBCheetahs “doing very well”Meanwhile, the eight cheetahs – five females and three males – that are at Kuno after their arrival from Namibia on September 17 last year are “doing very well”, per the government. “All the eight individual cheetahs are doing very well in terms of natural behaviour, body condition, activity pattern and overall fitness,” a government press release on February 16 said. “All Cheetahs are doing well and hunting the wild prey [sic].”However, authorities had been concerned about the health of one of the females. As per news reports in January, five-year-old Sasha was being treated for renal failure.The Ministry would also conduct a consultative workshop involving international cheetah experts, scientists, veterinarians, and forest officials on February 20 at Kuno National Park to take “India’s ambitious project on cheetah introduction forward”, the press release said.“The outcome of the workshop will pave [the] way for better cheetah management and will help in successfully establishing cheetah metapopulation in India.”The government was “optimistic” about the success of Project Cheetah “with the active support and involvement of international experts from South Africa and Namibia, scientists, veterinarians, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Indian Oil Corporation and local communities,” the ministry said in a press release.The government’s optimism comes at a time when Project Cheetah has faced a barrage of criticism from experts, including scientists who have studied not only cheetahs in African grasslands but also studied India’s existing grasslands. Introducing African cheetahs to Indian grasslands will not help conserve our grasslands, contrary to what the ministry claims, biologists have said. Others have also questioned the ecological viability of the project, including the carrying capacity of cheetahs in Kuno. Kuno is not a fenced park – as most parks in Africa, where cheetah introductions have been successful, are – which could encourage cheetahs looking for more space to wander into villages near the national park, experts have pointed out.