Indian authorities released a pair of Namibian cheetahs into the wild, according to what was announced Sunday by the Minister of Environment, Bhupinder Yadav, as part of a project to reintroduce this type of animal to the Asian country after its extinction more than 70 years ago.

"The two cheetahs are doing well," Yadav wrote on Twitter, after they were released in Kono National Park in central India, where they spent months in a cage to enable them to acclimate.

The two cheetahs, Oban and Asha, are the first batch to be released from eight cheetahs that arrived from Namibia last September, following the approval of the Indian Supreme Court in 2020 to import African cheetahs "to a carefully chosen place" on a trial basis.

Another 12 cheetahs arrived in India in the past month, and authorities hope the cheetahs will multiply after their release, reaching 100 within 10 years.

The authorities said that the transfer of cheetahs from Namibia to India is the first of its kind to take place from one continent to another.
India previously included Asian cheetahs, but an Indian prince killed the last of them in 1947, then in 1952 this species was officially declared extinct.

African leopards, a different subspecies from the Asian leopard, were released in Kono National Park, which is known for its vast grasslands and abundance of prey.