Environment & Ecology

President Murmu visits Kuno National Park, reviews Project Cheetah

Sunday, 21 June 2026 5 min readSource: Press Information BureauArticle 9 of 13

On June 21, 2026, President Droupadi Murmu visited Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, the site of India's cheetah reintroduction programme, and toured the park's Cheetah Management Area, where she was briefed by the Divisional Forest Officer on Project Cheetah. The visit followed her leading International Yoga Day celebrations in Jabalpur earlier in the day. Around the visit, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav released two cheetahs at Kuno. Kuno is home to translocated cheetahs and their India-born cubs under the world's first inter-continental large-carnivore translocation project.

Key Facts & Details

8 points

1
President Droupadi Murmu visited Kuno National Park (Madhya Pradesh) on June 21, 2026.
2
She toured the Cheetah Management Area and was briefed on Project Cheetah.
3
MP CM Mohan Yadav released two cheetahs at Kuno around the visit.
4
Kuno is the site of India's cheetah reintroduction programme.
5
The visit followed the President leading Yoga Day celebrations in Jabalpur.

Deep Dive

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Project Cheetah is the world's first inter-continental translocation of a large carnivore.
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Cheetahs were brought to Kuno from Namibia (2022) and South Africa (2023).
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The cheetah had been declared extinct in India in 1952.

Exam Focus

Which national park, visited by President Murmu in June 2026, is the site of India's Project Cheetah?

Exam Relevance & Angle

Environment and protected-area items — the park, the species and the flagship programme — are recurring GA hooks; Project Cheetah and Kuno are high-frequency exam topics.

Target Exams

SBI POIBPS POSSC CGLRRB NTPCUPSC CSEState PCS

Background & Context

Kuno National Park, in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh, is the centre of Project Cheetah, the world's first inter-continental translocation of a large carnivore. The cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952; under Project Cheetah, animals were brought from Namibia (September 2022) and South Africa (2023) to re-establish a wild population. Several cubs have since been born on Indian soil. Kuno was originally developed as a second home for Asiatic lions. The programme is a flagship of India's wildlife-conservation and rewilding efforts and is closely tracked for its ecological significance.