BHOPAL: Second home to African cheetahs in India under the ambitious Project Cheetah, western Madhya Pradesh’s Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (GSWS), got on Sunday, its fourth African cheetah.
Already home to South African male coalition Prabhas and Pawak and SA female Dheera, the GSWS welcomed Botswanan female Radha aka CCB-2 on Sunday.
Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav released the 3-year-old Botswanan female CCB-2 into the soft release enclosure, after renaming her Radha, to mark the festival of Radha Ashtami (appearance day of Radharani, the eternal consort of Lord Krishna).
Shifted from the Kuno National Park (KNP), Radha has joined three South African cheetahs at GSWS, including a male coalition which was shifted there from the KNP in April 2025 and SA female Dheera, who was translocated there in September 2025. The male coalition of Prabhas and Pawak and their compatriot female Dheera are housed in two separate enclosures in two different directions, separated by a distance of six-eight km.
Radha aka CCB-2 was released by the CM in an enclosure which is separate and far from the two enclosures already having two males and a female from SA.
Release of Radha into the GSWS is part of the Project Cheetah’s long-term plan of having cheetah population at multiple sites, instead of confining it to just one site, the KNP in northern MP.
Presence of two SA males, a SA female and a Botswanan female at GSWS is also central to the Project’s overall strategy of having diverse genetic pool of cheetahs, through progenies of parents who are from different genetic lines (parents being from different nations). This assumes significance as cheetahs born from parents of the same genetic line, are often genetically fragile, making them particularly vulnerable to onslaught of diseases.
India now has 56 cheetahs, including four adults and semi-adult African cheetahs at GSWS and 52 African (Namibian, SA and Botswanan) adults and their Indian born cubs at the KNP.
A third site, Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (VDTR) in MP’s Bundelkhand region is also ready with five secured enclosures to welcome its share of cheetahs.