Three cheetah cubs die in India amid sweltering heat wave

Two cheetahs are seen inside a quarantine section before being relocated to India at a reserve near Bella Bella, South Africa, in this file photo from Sept 4, 2022. - AP

NEW DELHI (AP): Three cheetah cubs born to a big cat that was brought to India from Africa last year died in central India’s Kuno National Park in the past week, forest officials said, as a heat wave in the region sent temperatures soaring.

The cubs were the first to be born in India in more than seven decades. Once widespread in India, cheetahs became extinct in 1952 from hunting and habitat loss. Their mother was among the 20 cheetahs that India flew in from Namibia and South Africa as part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce the world’s fastest land animal to the South Asian country.