South Africa has concluded an agreement to introduce several dozen African cheetahs to India over the next decade. The first batch of 12 cheetahs will be sent in the coming month, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced.

It plans to send a similar number of animals to India annually over the next eight to ten years to help establish a viable and secure cheetah population.

Asiatic cheetahs became extinct in India in the late 1940s due to overhunting and the loss of suitable habitats.

In 2020, India's Supreme Court ruled that African cheetahs, which are a different subspecies, could be experimentally introduced into the country at a “carefully chosen location”.