When Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first eight Namibian cheetahs into Kuno National Park in September 2022, the ambitious experiment was greeted with both excitement and scepticism. Three years later, that project has its first homegrown success story: Mukhi, a female cub born at Kuno, has officially reached adulthood.

Mukhi was one of four cubs delivered by Namibian cheetah Jwala in March 2023. While her siblings died during a brutal heatwave, Mukhi endured. On Monday, she turned 915 days, or 30 months old, the age when a cub is considered an adult, capable of breeding and contributing to the country’s fragile cheetah population.

“Mukhi has grown well. Today our efforts have yielded encouraging results,” Project Cheetah director Uttam Kumar Sharma told PTI.

How India brough

See Full Page