Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav will release the female cheetah Veera and her two 10-month-old cubs into the wild at Kuno National Park on Thursday, marking International Cheetah Day.

The family will be released in the Parond Forest area, which is a designated tourism zone inside the park.

Officials said that letting the cheetah family move freely in the wild will help draw more visitors and increase public interest in Project Cheetah, India’s effort to bring cheetahs back after they went extinct in the country decades ago.

Once released, Veera and her cubs will be tracked round-the-clock using advanced radio collars and trained field teams to ensure they stay safe and adjust smoothly to their new environment.

During the event, the Chief Minister will also launch the Kuno National Park Calendar 2026 and unveil the new Field Manual for Clinical Management of Free-Ranging Cheetahs.

He will further inaugurate a new souvenir shop inside the park to improve visitor experience and support wildlife awareness.

The entire programme is being held under the supervision of the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) and the Director of the Lion Project, Madhya Pradesh.

What is Project Cheetah: 

Cheetahs disappeared from India mainly because of excessive and careless hunting. To revive the species, Phase 1 of Project Cheetah started in 2022.

This phase involved bringing cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia and releasing them in Kuno, after the species was declared extinct in 1952.

The project is run by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) with help from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).