Botswana Donates Cheetahs To India, Speeding Conservation Goals

GABORONE-Beginning a new chapter in India-Botswana cooperation in wildlife conservation, Botswana, on November 13, donated eight cheetahs to India under Project Cheetah. The symbolic donation event took place during the visit of President Droupadi Murmu and her Botswana counterpart Duma Gideon Boko to the Mokolodi Nature Reserve. The two leaders witnessed the release of captured cheetahs originating from the Ghanzi region into the quarantine facility by experts from India and Botswana.

Botswana hosts one of the world’s largest populations of cheetahs, with an estimated population of approximately 1,700. This accounts for approximately 25 per cent of the world’s remaining wild cheetahs.

India’s Project Cheetah is a wildlife conservation initiative launched in 2022, aimed at reintroducing cheetahs to India after their extinction in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As the world’s first intercontinental large wild carnivore translocation project, it operates under the umbrella of Project Tiger and aligns with the Cheetah Action Plan to restore and conserve the species. (IANS)