The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is an initiative of the Indian Government to provide safeguards to the Asiatic lion from extinction in the wild by means of reintroduction. The last wild popula
A male Asiatic lion
Asiatic lioness, named MOTI, at Bristol Zoo, England (1996)
India's native subspecies of the cheetah—the Asiatic cheetah —became extinct there in the mid-20th century. Since then, the Asiatic subspecies has survived only in Iran in critically endangered number
Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project
…unable to provide adequate protection to tigers in its Panna National Park and the lions if reintroduced there would be in danger, that the proposed introduction of Southern African cheetahs to Kuno rendered it unsuitable for lion reintroduction. The Gujarat State Wildlife Department proposed new homes for lions…
A Southeast African Cheetah inside the quarantine facility in Kuno National Park
The last documented Asiatic cheetahs in India, three males from the same litter, were shot in 1947—while they were sitting together at night—by Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Surguja State, Madhya Pradesh, who poses behind them with his rifle. His private secretary provided this picture, which was communicated to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society on January 9, 1948.
Hunting of blackbuck with Indian cheetah; Drawing by James Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, c.1812
The first cheetah being introduced into the park