India welcomes Cheetahs after 70 years on PM Modi's birthday

India welcomes Cheetahs after 70 years on PM Modi's birthday

India welcomes Cheetahs after 70 years on PM Modi's birthday

Gwalior : Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the three cheetahs that were brought from Namibia on Saturday morning, at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, eight cheetahs from Namibia landed here, as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven decades after it was declared extinct in the country.

The plane landed at the Gwalior airbase shortly before 8am, an official said A modified Boeing aircraft, which took off from the African country Friday night, carried the cheetahs in special wooden crates during the around 10-hour journey.

They were flown to Kuno National Park, where Narendra Modi, who is celebrating his birthday,  released three of the cheetahs in quarantine enclosures of the park at 10.45am.

The animals were flown from Gwalior to Kuno in Sheopur district, 165 km away, in an Air Force helicopter, and the journey took about 20-25 minutes, an official said.

The cheetahs remained without food during the journey and will be given something to eat once they are released in the enclosures, an official said.