An Indian-born female cheetah has given birth to four cubs in the wild at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav said on Saturday (April 11, 2026). The fresh litter takes India’s total population of cheetahs to 57.

Mr. Yadav also said that this is the first recorded cheetah birth in the open forest since India’s reintroduction programme for the big cat species — Project Cheetah — was launched in 2022, as all previous births have taken place inside Kuno’s large-ranging enclosures. The cubs have been born to a daughter of South African cheetah Gamini.