Cheetahs from Namibia, South Africa get new names, here is what they are called

The Namibian and South African Cheetahs that were released in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park were renamed following a call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the people to come up with suggestions.

The 12 South African cheetahs have been named as Daksha, Nirva, Vayu, Agni, Gamini, Tejas, Veera, Suraj, Dheera, Uday, Prabhas, Pavak.

Namibian Cheetah Oban has been rechristened to Pavan while Asha has been changed to Aasha. Cheetah Savannah is now Nabha, while Siyaya is now Jwala. Elton's name has been changed to Gaurav, Freddy is now called Shaurya, and Tiblisi's name has been changed to Dhatri.

PM Modi in his Mann Ki Baat on 25th September 2022 had urged the citizens to come with suggestions for cheetahs reintroduced from Namibia and South Africa, with an intention to popularise and to sensitise the general public about Project Cheetah.

In this regard, a competition was organized on Government of India platform mygov.in from 26th September to 31st October 2022. In response, a total of 11,565 entries were received suggesting new names for reintroduced cheetahs.

"The names were selected after scrutinisation by a selection committee and based on the significance and relevance of the suggested names for their conservation and cultural value the following new names have been selected for cheetahs for Namibian and South African cheetah," a statement from ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

Project Cheetah aims to bring back independent India's only extinct large mammal - the cheetah. As part of the project, 50 cheetahs will be introduced in various National Parks over five years.

As per the Action Plan, India hopes to get 10-12 cheetahs annually from African countries for the next five years at least.

Cheetah happens to be the only large carnivore that got completely wiped out from India, mainly due to over-hunting and habitat loss.

Kuno National Park is now home to 23 Cheetahs. Of these, eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia, while 12 more were translocated from South Africa. One of the Namibian cheetahs, Sasha, died while another female, Siyaya, delivered four cubs.

Kuno also offers the prospect of housing four big cats of India -tiger, lion, leopard and cheetah and allowing them to coexist as in the past.