New Delhi: The Congress has said that the proposal for ‘Project Cheetah’ was prepared in 2008-09 and approved by the then Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government.Amidst much fanfare today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ceremonially released eight cheetahs brought from Namibia in a Madhya Pradesh national park.On the same day, September 17, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted that PM Modi “hardly ever acknowledges continuity in governance.”An analysis for The Wire Science had noted that the cheetahs are here after more than a decade of efforts by the Indian government, started by the UPA government in 2008, to “bring back” these animals to the country from which they disappeared in the early 1950s.“The tamasha orchestrated by PM today is unwarranted and is yet another diversion from pressing national issues and Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Ramesh wrote.PM hardly ever acknowledges continuity in governance. Cheetah project going back to my visit to Capetown on 25.04.2010 is the latest example. The tamasha orchestrated by PM today is unwarranted and is yet another diversion from pressing national issues and #BharatJodoYatra 1/2 pic.twitter.com/SiZQhQOu0N— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 17, 2022A day ago, Congress said that in 2013, the Supreme Court had stayed the project, and in 2020, that the apex court allowed it, paving the way for the cheetahs to come to India.“The proposal for ‘Project Cheetah’ was prepared in 2008-09. Manmohan Singh’s government gave approval to it. The then Forest and Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, went to Cheetah outreach centre in South Africa in April 2010,” the Congress said in a tweet on September 16.Also read: Project Cheetah Begins to the Trumpets of Hope, and WarinessThe Congress also tweeted the above picture of Ramesh at the Cheetah Outreach Centre in South Africa in 2010.Ramesh also shared an article he had written in a daily a few weeks ago that gave a history of why and how today’s event of the cheetah’s arriving in India was made possible. In his piece, Ramesh had also talked about his visit to the Cheetah Outreach Centre in Cape Town and the efforts under the programme back then.As the cheetahs arrive today at Kuno National Park from Namibia, sharing an article I had written in the Economic Times of July 30th that gives the history of why and how today's event was made possible. pic.twitter.com/IpIeXSR1nO— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 16, 2022Cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952. The cheetahs that would be released are from Namibia and have been brought under an MoU signed earlier this year.Prime Minister Modi visited Madhya Pradesh on September 17 and released the cheetahs in the Kuno National Park.(With PTI inputs)