#WATCH: How on his 72nd birthday, PM Modi uncaged 8 cheetahs from Namibia into India's wilds

New Delhi: On his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday released three cheetahs in quarantine enclosures of Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Today morning, plane carrying eight feline from Namibia landed in Gwalior, as part of the programme to reintroduce cheetahs seven decades after it was declared extinct in India.

After the modified Boeing 747 landed at the Gwalior airbase at 7:47 am with eight cheetahs, they were flown in two Air Force helicopters to Palpur near the Park.

A video showed the crates carrying the cheetahs stacked in what was earlier the economy section of the Boeing aircraft.

The aircraft took off African country on Friday night. In around 10-hour journey, the animals were carried in the special wooden crates.

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Before their flight from Namibia, the cheetahs, the fastest land animals in the world, were treated with a tranquilizer that lasts for three to five days.

The animals were flown to the park in Sheopur district which is about 165 km away from Gwalior. The journey took about 20-25 minutes.

The cheetahs remained without food during the transcontinental journey and were giving something to eat after they were released in the enclosures.

A dais was set up in the Park under which special cages carrying cheetahs were kept and PM Modi released three of them in an enclosure by operating a lever.

After that, other dignitaries released the remaining cheetahs in other enclosures.

The cheetahs were brought in a special flight of Terra Avia, an airline based at Chisinau, Moldova in Europe that operates chartered passenger and cargo flights.

The Park is situated on the northern side of Vidhyachal mountains and is spread across 344 sq km.

With inputs from PTI

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