The eldest of the twelve cheetahs that were flown into Madhya Pradesh from South Africa on Saturday to be housed in the Kuno National Park is an eight year-and-three-month-old male, while the youngest is a female which has completed two years and four months, officials said.

Three of the cheetahs have been born in June 2020, comprising two female and one male, while the second oldest of the lot is seven years and ten months old, they added.

The average life span of a South African cheetah was 8-10 years, an expert associated with the reintroduction project told PTI.

These 12 cheetahs, comprising seven males and five females, are the second set of the species to arrive in KNP, the first eight having been brought in from Namibia and released into the quarantine enclosures by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17 last year.

These eight cheetahs are currently in hunting enclosures before being released into the wild.

The last cheetah died in India in Koriya district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947 and the species was declared extinct in 1952.

Former Union environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had initiated 'Project Cheetah' in 2009 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to reintroduce them in India.

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