New Delhi/IBNS: India will get more than 100 cheetahs from South Africa in an ambitious plan to relocate the wild cats, media reports said.

South Africa on Thursday said it had signed a deal to relocate more than 100 cheetahs in the South Asian country.

Twelve cheetahs will be flown to India in the next month, reports said.

"The plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years" to help establish a "viable and secure cheetah population," the Environment Ministry said as quoted by Economic Times.

In Sept 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released eight cheetahs from Namibia in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.

The release of wild Cheetahs by the Prime Minister in Kuno National Park is a part of his efforts to revitalise and diversify India’s wildlife and its habitat. Cheetah was declared extinct from India in 1952.