Finally the Cheetahs of the Kuno National Park will be released in the open, and they will have a bigger and open space to wander in the jungle.

Over the past three days, forest officials in Madhya Pradesh have released seven of 14 cheetahs from their quarantine bomas (enclosure) into bigger and soft enclosures with radio collars re-attached around their necks.

This was done after the cheetahs were seen shedding their winter coat, a response to their circadian rhythm, forest officials told ThePrint.

The animals were originally translocated from Africa to Kuno as part of Project Cheetah launched last year and had spent the last month in quarantine for necessary treatment and infection monitoring.

The officials are preparing to eventually re-release the 14 Cheetahs into the wilderness of Kuno National Park.

The cheetahs had been released in the park upon their arrival in India, but were recaptured and quarantined after three of them died of septicemia. Initially, the radio collars were thought to be responsible for causing lacerations around their necks and exposing their skin to parasites, but the deaths were later linked to the animals’ winter coats which had become infested with flies and maggots as they roamed the jungles of Kuno during the hot and humid monsoon period.

The thick winter coat turning into a breeding ground for maggots and flies in the humidity.

Following the death of six cheetahs, the remaining 14 animals were subsequently recaptured in August and quarantined.

Project Cheetah, the first-of-its-kind intercontinental cheetah translocation programme, was launched on 17 September, 2022, with the introduction of eight cheetahs brought from Namibia into Kuno National Park. This was followed by 12 more cheetahs being brought to the park from South Africa in February this year.