Cheetah Nirva has given birth to five cubs at Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, according to Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav and Union Minister for the Environment Bhupender Yadav, both of whom shared the news on X (formerly Twitter).
Kuno National Park officials confirmed that Nirva gave birth on April 25, but veterinarians recorded video footage on April 27 verifying the cubs' presence.
Nirva, who was brought from South Africa in February 2023, is five and a half years old. She had been residing in a large enclosure when she gave birth on Sunday. Last year, she gave birth to two cubs, too, but they did not survive.
With this development, India's total cheetah population now stands at 31. The Kuno park now houses 29 cheetahs, including 19 cubs and 10 adults. Two male cheetahs from Kuno, Pawak and Prabhash, were recently relocated to the Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh (read the full report here).
In February 2023, 12 more cheetahs arrived from South Africa. Before the recent birth of five cubs, Kuno was home to 24 cheetahs, including 14 cubs born in India. Eight Namibian cheetahs, five females and three males, were released into the Kuno National Park on September 17, 2022, marking the first-ever intercontinental translocation of these big cats.
(with inputs from multiple news reports)
