Cheetahs Released in Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve: Madhya Pradesh Gets Its Third Cheetah Home
On 7 October 2026, the Madhya Pradesh government released two cheetahs, named Vyom and Neera, into the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (VDTR) in Sagar district.
VDTR, in the Bundelkhand region, becomes the third cheetah habitat in Madhya Pradesh, after Kuno National Park (Sheopur district) and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (Mandsaur district).
About 439 hectares inside the reserve have been prepared for the cheetahs, with bomas (large fenced enclosures where new animals get used to the place before going fully wild). Two more cheetahs are planned to be brought to VDTR next month.
The release took place on the last day of Wildlife Conservation Week (1 to 7 October). At the same event, the state released its Vulture Population Estimation 2026 report.
The state said about ₹80 crore was earned from its sanctuaries this year, of which ₹20 crore went to villages around them. Families in the reserve's buffer zone can run homestays, with a grant of ₹2 to 3 lakh.
As of September 2026, when Project Cheetah completed four years, India had 52 cheetahs, including 32 cubs born in India since the project began.
Project Cheetah: India's Cheetah Reintroduction Programme
Project Cheetah is India's plan to bring the cheetah back to its forests and grasslands. The cheetah once lived across much of India, but it was hunted to extinction and declared extinct in 1952. Since India had no cheetahs left, it brought wild cheetahs from Africa, starting with eight from Namibia in September 2022. It is the world's first project to move a large wild carnivore (meat-eating animal) from one continent to another to restore it in the wild.
Releasing Vyom and Neera into Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve adds a third site to Project Cheetah, after Kuno and Gandhi Sagar. This is the "metapopulation" approach in action: spreading cheetahs across several connected habitats so that no single site carries the whole population. Nauradehi, now part of this tiger reserve, was one of the sites shortlisted for cheetahs back in 2010.
Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve
Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (VDTR) is a tiger reserve in central Madhya Pradesh, spread across Sagar, Damoh and Narsinghpur districts. It is also called the Nauradehi Tiger Reserve. With an area of about 2,339 sq km, it is Madhya Pradesh's largest tiger reserve. It was notified in September 2023 as India's 54th tiger reserve and Madhya Pradesh's seventh.
The cheetahs Vyom and Neera were released into this reserve, making it Madhya Pradesh's third cheetah habitat. Its open grasslands, chinkara and other prey make it suitable for cheetahs, and Nauradehi had been on the list of cheetah sites since 2010. The state's plan to add two more cheetahs and support homestays in the buffer zone shows how the reserve is meant to protect wildlife while giving local villages an income.
Project Tiger and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)
Project Tiger is India's national programme to save the tiger, started on 1 April 1973 with 9 tiger reserves. It protects tigers through a network of special forests called tiger reserves. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is the legal body, set up under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, that runs Project Tiger and supervises these reserves. Over time, the NTCA has also taken charge of other large-cat work, including Project Cheetah.
The new cheetah site is a tiger reserve, so it falls under the NTCA's supervision. This shows how the tiger reserve network, built under Project Tiger, now also provides safe, managed land for restoring other species such as the cheetah.
- Date of release: 7 October 2026; cheetahs named Vyom and Neera
- Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve (Sagar, Damoh, Narsinghpur): MP's third cheetah site after Kuno National Park (Sheopur) and Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (Mandsaur)
- Cheetah enclosure area in VDTR: about 439 hectares, with bomas
- VDTR area: about 2,339 sq km; notified in September 2023 as India's 54th tiger reserve
- Cheetahs in India (September 2026): 52, including 32 India-born cubs
- Sources of cheetahs: Namibia (8, September 2022), South Africa (12, February 2023), Botswana (9, February 2026)
- Kuno National Park: about 748 sq km; upgraded from sanctuary to National Park in 2018
- Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary received its first cheetahs on 20 April 2025
- Cheetah declared extinct in India: 1952
- Wildlife Conservation Week: 1 to 7 October