New Delhi: The most awaited flight carrying 8 Cheetahs from Namibia has finally arrived in India. These Cheetahs will be left in Madhya Pradesh’s park by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday tomorrow.

The cheetah will reappear in India on Saturday, September 17, which also happens to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, more than 70 years after going extinct there. As part of India’s Rs 90 crore Cheetah Introduction project, eight African cheetahs from Namibia — five females and three males between the ages of 4-6 years — will be transported 8,000 kilometres over the Indian Ocean to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where they will be released.

This year, India was supposed to receive 20 African cheetahs — eight from Namibia and another 12 from South Africa — but officials with the Environment Ministry have said that while all the Indian-side procedures for bringing the South African cheetahs have been finished, the South African government’s approval is still pending.

A massive carnivore will be moved from one continent to another for the first time ever in history.

The cheetah has a long history in the nation; in Chaturbunj Nala in Mandasur, Madhya Pradesh, a Neolithic cave art of a “slender spotted feline being hunted” was discovered. It is thought that the Sanskrit term chitrak, which means “the spotted one,” is where the name “cheetah” first appeared.

Cheetah populations used to be fairly common in India. From Kathiawar in the west to Deogarh in the east, and from Jaipur and Lucknow in the north to Mysore in the south, the animal was discovered.