12 cheetahs are to be flown in from South Africa today

Three years after India first proposed the idea, twelve cheetahs, five of which are female, will be flown in from South Africa on Saturday.

According to a Madhya Pradesh government official, the cheetahs would be released into their quarantine cages in the Kuno National Park, which spans 750 km in the state's Chambal region, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.

Although confirmation of their presence is awaited, sources claim that Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will attend the event.

On September 17, 2017, the day before his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first group of eight spotted felines, including five females, from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at Kuno as part of the ambitious Cheetah reintroduction program.

"A C-17 Globemaster of the Indian Air Force (IAF) took off from the Hindon airport at 6 am on Thursday to bring the 12 cheetahs from South Africa," National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) head S P Yadav told a press conference in New Delhi.

On Friday night, the cheetahs will leave the O R Tambo International Airport in Gauteng for Kuno. On Saturday at 10 a.m., the transport aircraft will touch down at the Gwalior Air Force facility in Madhya Pradesh. Helicopters from the IAF's MI-17 project would handle the advanced travel, he said.

"Chief Minister Chouhan and Union minister Yadav will release the cheetahs in the quarantine bomas at 11 am," Ramesh Gupta, Madhya Pradesh's head of forest force, told PTI in Bhopal.

10 quarantine bomas have been constructed at Kuno, according to the NTCA chief, for the 12 spotted cats.

"Based on the experience with the cheetahs from Namibia, we have improved the bomas. These are even better than those in Namibia and South Africa," he said.

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