An Indian-born female cheetah has given birth to four cubs in the wild at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, said Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav.

This was the first instance of cheetah cubs being born in the wild – and not in a monitored enclosure – since Project Cheetah was launched in September 2022.

Under the project, cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa have been reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.

However, since 2023, at least 18 cheetahs have died.

On Saturday, Yadav said that the four cubs were born to two-year-old Gamini, who was the first cheetah to have been born on Indian soil after the reintroduction.

She had been released into the wild a year ago alongside her mother.

“The cheetahs have already adapted to the wild and roam freely, but mating and cub births in the wild mark a significant milestone,” the Hindustan Times quoted Uttam Sharma, the national park’s field director, as saying.

Yadav said that the bird of the four cubs marks “a significant step toward achieving the core objectives of the project – survival and breeding under natural conditions”.

With this, the number of cheetahs in India stands at 57, according to media reports.

Since 2023, 39 cubs have been born at Kuno. In 2025, 12 cubs were born in the park, but only six survived, PTI reported. Between February 7 and February 18, nine cubs were born in two litters.

However, all the births so far had taken place in monitored enclosures in Kuno.

The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. The wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.

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