New Delhi, (AFP) - India announced Wednesday that it will return the cheetahs to its lands after they disappeared from the country more than 70 years ago, thanks to an agreement with Namibia, which will hand over a first group of eight of them next month.

India has been working on the project since 2020, when the country's Supreme Court authorized the introduction of African cheetahs on a trial basis at a "carefully selected site".

The Asian cheetah has been officially declared extinct in India since 1952. The agreement signed Wednesday in New Delhi will allow African cheetahs to be introduced to a national park in the state of Madhya Pradesh (center), as part of the activities of the 75th anniversary of India's independence on August 15.

"The culmination of 75 glorious years of independence is the return to India of the world's fastest wild species, the cheetah, which will revitalize the ecological dynamics" in India, Indian Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav wrote on Twitter.

"The reintroduction of the cheetah will greatly improve the livelihoods of local communities through long-term ecotourism prospects," he said.

The leopard is the only carnivorous animal that has become extinct in India, mainly due to hunting and loss of its natural habitat. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo is believed to have killed the last three leopards in the country in the late 1940s.

Kunu Balpur National Park was chosen as the new home for the leopards due to its abundance of prey and grasslands.

"The main objective of the reintroduction project is to establish a viable population of cheetahs in India, enabling them to play their functional role as the apex predator," the environment ministry said in a statement.

India also hopes to strike a deal with South Africa to bring more cheetahs from them.