India-born cheetah KGP12 gives birth to four cubs at Kuno, months after losing first litter
Kuno: For KGP12, motherhood began with four tiny cubs and ended in loss. Now, she has become a mother again.
In April 2026, the India-born cheetah gave birth to four cubs in the wild at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. She was just over two years old and had spent more than a year living in the wild.
It was a massive moment for India’s cheetah reintroduction programme. KGP12 was born in India herself, to Gamini, a female cheetah brought from South Africa. But within weeks, all four cubs were dead after they were attacked and killed by a leopard.
On 18 September, she gave birth to four cubs at Kuno, just a day after Project Cheetah completed four years.
Forest officials spotted the cubs the following day and have been monitoring the family from a distance. Kuno Field Director Uttam Kumar Sharma said the staff were keeping their intervention to a minimum so the mother could care for the cubs without unnecessary disturbance.
The setting is also different from KGP12’s first litter. Her earlier cubs were born in the wild. This time, the four cubs were born inside a secured enclosure, offering them greater protection during their most vulnerable early weeks.
The latest birth takes India’s living cheetah population to 56, including 36 cheetahs born in the country. Of these, 53 are at Kuno National Park and three at Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Project Cheetah began on 17 September 2022, when eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia and released at Kuno. Twelve more arrived from South Africa in February 2023, followed by nine from Botswana in February 2026.
