New Delhi: Mukhi, now two-and-a-half years old, survived despite the odds. The first cheetah to be born on Indian soil in the wild in centuries, Mukhi was part of a litter of four born on 29 March, 2023.
Her mother Jwala – brought to India from South Africa under central government’s Project Cheetah in February 2023 – rejected her, and three of her siblings died due to extreme heat in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno within weeks.
On Thursday, the now-adult cheetah gave birth to five cubs, the first time that a second-generation of the species was born in Indian forests since the big cat was reintroduced to the country.
Officials said Mukhi gave birth in a soft “boma” at the Kuno National Park, where she was kept during her gestation period.
“This is the first time in recent history that an Indian-born cheetah has reproduced, making it a landmark achievement for Project Cheetah,” Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC), announced Thursday in a post on X.
Field director of Kuno National Park, Uttam Sharma, said Mukhi was “hand raised” by the forest department after her birth.
“None of her siblings lived, and her mother Jwala also rejected her. So, this birth is even more special for us. We raised her since she was a baby,” Sharma said.
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Earlier in September, when Mukhi reached adulthood, Minister Yadav had shared her story on X, calling her a “symbol of hope and courage” after she survived being abandoned by her mother, lost her siblings and dealt with health issues.
Sharma told ThePrint that Mukhi, after being reared by the forest department, was released into the wild a few times.
“It was during one of the re-wilding attempts that she became pregnant… The male cheetah could be one of the cubs of Asha, one of the original batch of big cats brought from Namibia,” he said.
Mukhi was brought back to a boma for her pregnancy. “So, the birth happened inside. This will ensure she and her cubs are safe in this period,” Sharma said.
The birth of Mukhi’s cubs takes the number of cheetahs in India to 32 – 29 in Kuno and 3 at Gandhi Sagar National Park, also in MP.
Project Cheetah, the central government’s plan to reintroduce cheetahs into the wild in India, began in 2022 with the arrival of eight Namibian cheetahs to Kuno. Twelve more big cats were brought from South Africa in February 2023.
Of these 20, nine adults died over the months. Ten cubs born in India, including Mukhi’s siblings, couldn’t survive.
The last time India had cheetahs was in 1952, after which they were declared extinct in the country. Project Cheetah was launched as an attempt to revive this population and ensure that the five big cat species – lion, tiger, cheetah, leopard and snow leopard – all thrived in the country.
The next phase of the project will involve bringing a third batch of eight cheetahs, this time from Botswana, to India by December.
On Thursday, experts expressed concerns about Project Cheetah.
“All the births that have happened on Indian soil have been in captivity. How will they adjust to the wild if they are born and raised in these enclosures? This continued captive breeding makes no sense for the long-term goals of the project,” said wildlife biologist Ravi Chellam.
He explained that cheetahs being born in India does not change their genetic make-up. They are African cheetahs, genetically different from Asian cheetahs, which is what India originally had,” he said.
Cheetahs, or acinonyx jubatus, are listed as ‘vulnerable’ species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. There are an estimated 6,000 of these big cats left in the wild worldwide. They are mainly found in the African savannahs and West Asian countries such as Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. And, now, also in India.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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