Tenth Cheetah Litter in Kuno Raises Population to 53 — But Can India’s Cheetahs Survive in the Wild?

 India’s cheetah population reaches 53 after the tenth litter in Kuno, but experts question whether births inside bomas signal real conservation success.

The announcement of the tenth cheetah litter in Kuno National Park on March 9 has pushed India’s cheetah population to 53 individuals. The numbers appear impressive. Of these, 44 cheetahs are currently alive, including nine recently brought from Botswana, while 45 cubs have been born in India since the project began. Out of these births, 33 cubs are surviving and 12 have died.For a species declared extinct in India in 1952, the return of cheetah cubs is emotionally powerful. Government officials and conservation managers have understandably celebrated the milestone as proof that Project Cheetah is moving in the right direction. But is this a right perception? 

Also read: 3 Years In: Unveiling the Truth About India's Cheetah Project

Perhaps, No. When viewed through the lens of ecology and long-term conservation, the numbers invite a deeper question: Do these births represent a genuine revival of a wild species, or are they still part of a carefully managed experiment?

The Boma Birth

A closer look at the births reveals an important detail. All cheetah cubs in Kuno have been born inside closed “bomas”—large fenced enclosures where females are kept in controlled conditions during breeding. It’s like cheetahs born in nursing home. Within these enclosures, cubs are protected from predators, monitored closely by veterinarians, and supported through human management. In such settings, the chances of survival are naturally higher than in the wild.

But this also means that the cubs have not yet faced the real challenges that define survival in nature.

Also read: Kuno Cheetah Deaths: What Recent Incidents Reveal About India’s Conservation Effort

In African ecosystems, cheetah cub mortality can exceed 70 percent, largely due to predation from lions, hyenas and leopards. In Kuno’s protected bomas, however, there are no predators to threaten the cubs.

This raises a fundamental conservation question: How meaningful are births that occur under controlled conditions? For conservation to succeed, cheetahs must eventually breed and raise cubs in the open wild, without the safety net of fenced enclosures. But the actual litmus test will be rewilding.

Even if cubs are born safely, their future survival depends on the ability to rewild them successfully.

Cheetahs raised in managed environments must develop essential survival skills—hunting, territory establishment, and avoidance of human settlements. Without these instincts, released animals may struggle to survive outside enclosures. The challenge is particularly significant in India, where human density and habitat fragmentation are far higher than in African landscapes.

If cubs born in bomas cannot transition effectively into the wild, the project risks becoming a semi-captive breeding programme rather than a self-sustaining wildlife population.

Habitat Limits and Dispersal Risks

Recent incidents in and around Kuno suggest that the landscape is already under pressure. In the past year, multiple cheetah deaths have occurred, including fatalities caused by dispersal outside the park and encounters with human infrastructure.

Cheetahs are naturally wide-ranging animals. In Africa they roam across vast grassland ecosystems, sometimes covering hundreds of kilometres. But Kuno National Park is relatively small, and the surrounding landscape is heavily populated.

As a result, cheetahs dispersing in search of prey or territory often end up entering villages, agricultural land, or highways.

Also read: Cheetah From Kuno National Park Strays 180 Km to Ranthambhore

Whenever a cheetah moves outside Kuno, mostly to the neighbouring Rajasthan, wildlife authorities frequently tranquilize the animal and bring it back to the park. This repeated intervention highlights a key limitation: the species still lacks a large, connected landscape in which to move freely.

Without such space, cheetah behaviour becomes artificially restricted.

The Unfinished Corridor

The original blueprint for Project Cheetah envisioned the creation of a 17,000-square-kilometre cheetah landscape corridor across multiple protected areas. This landscape approach was critical because cheetahs require vast open habitats and interconnected grasslands. Yet the corridor has not yet materialised. While Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary has been identified as a second potential site, its preparation has progressed slowly. A coalition of cheetahs and a female were released there last year, but ecological challenges remain.

Other potential habitats are still under development, leaving Kuno as the primary and heavily burdened site.Without multiple functioning landscapes, the project faces a population bottleneck, increasing ecological pressure on a single park.

The Prey Problem

Studies suggest that prey density in Kuno averages around 17 animals per square kilometre, with some pockets reaching 30–35. Experts estimate that a healthy cheetah population requires 30–60 prey units per square kilometre to sustain regular hunting success.

Low prey density forces cheetahs to travel longer distances in search of food, increasing their chances of encountering roads, human settlements, or leopard-dominated territories.

Also read: Future Tense For Cute Cheetah Cubs of Kuno 

A telling indicator of this challenge emerged in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, where Chief Minister Mohan Yadav revealed that the state spent Rs 1,27,10,870 on goat meat in 2024–25 to feed cheetahs in Kuno. That translates to roughly Rs 35,000 per day.

While supplementary feeding may be necessary in the early stages of reintroduction, a truly wild population should ideally hunt natural prey rather than depend on purchased meat. Kuno also has a significant leopard population, estimated at around 90 individuals—approximately 26 leopards per 100 square kilometres.

Leopards are powerful competitors and occasionally kill cheetahs, particularly cubs. In African ecosystems, cheetahs avoid areas with high leopard density.

In Kuno’s relatively confined space, such avoidance is difficult.

This adds another layer of ecological stress to a population that is still adjusting to a new environment.

Project Under Global Watch

The return of cheetahs to India is one of the most ambitious wildlife reintroduction projects in the world. It carries enormous symbolic weight, representing the restoration of a species that disappeared from the country seven decades ago.

But the project is also closely watched by scientists and conservationists worldwide.

In such a high-profile effort, transparency and data-driven management become essential. Timely release of mortality reports, ecological assessments, and long-term monitoring data helps ensure that the project evolves through adaptive learning rather than political celebration.

Also read: A Cheetah By The Tail

The birth of the tenth litter is certainly a reason for cautious optimism. It shows that cheetahs can adapt to Indian conditions and reproduce here.

But conservation success cannot be measured solely by the number of cubs born in enclosures.

The real indicators will emerge only when:

• Cheetahs roam freely across large grassland landscapes, which hardly exist

• They hunt natural prey without dependence on supplementary feeding

• They breed and raise cubs in the wild, outside fenced bomas

Until then, each litter should be seen not as a final triumph but as one step in a long and uncertain ecological experiment.

Project Cheetah began with a bold vision: to restore not just an animal, but India’s forgotten grassland ecosystems.

That vision remains possible but it requires a strong political will. . Achieving it will also require bigger landscapes, stronger prey populations, and transparent, science-based management. Only when cheetah cubs begin to survive and thrive in the open wild of India—far beyond the safety of bomas—will the celebration truly be justified.

By : Deshdeep Saxena