BHOPAL: Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (GSWS) in western Madhya Pradesh, the second home of African cheetahs in India, will welcome a three-year-old Botswanan female cheetah on Sunday.
The cheetah, identified as CCB-2, will become the fourth African cheetah in the sanctuary on the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border after it is released into a soft-release enclosure by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav on Sunday.
In April 2025, South African male coalition members Prabhas and Pawak were shifted from Kuno National Park (KNP) in northern Madhya Pradesh to GSWS, making it the second Indian home for African cheetahs under Project Cheetah.
Five months later, South African female Dheera was shifted from KNP to GSWS and placed in a separate enclosure, becoming the sanctuary’s first female African cheetah.
Now, a year later, Botswanan female CCB-2 will become the second African female at GSWS.
The enclosures of Prabhas-Pawak, Dheera and CCB-2 are separated by 6-8 km at the sanctuary.
Project Cheetah administrators had to choose between six-year-old South African female Nirva, who recently went untraceable for around two weeks in the wild at KNP due to a malfunctioning radio collar, and one of the nine Botswanan cheetahs flown to KNP in February 2026.
CCB-2 was selected because of its younger age compared to Nirva and the Project Cheetah think-tank’s focus on building a population of progeny born to parents from different African nations rather than from the same genetic line.
Experts are focusing on building a genetically diverse cheetah population to improve the survival of the big cats, as progeny from parents of the same genetic line are possibly more vulnerable to health issues and major infections.
Once released at GSWS on Sunday, CCB-2 will become the first of the nine Botswanan cheetahs — six females and three males — flown to KNP on February 28, 2026, to be shifted to a new habitat.