KUNO NATIONAL PARK, India ¨C Cheetahs once prowled India along with lions, tigers and leopards. They appear in ancient Hindu texts, cave paintings and are woven into centuries-old tapestries. Mughal Emperor Akbar kept 1,000 cheetahs in his stables.
But for 75 years ¡ª the entirety of its existence as an independent nation ¡ª India has been bereft of cheetahs, the world¡¯s fastest land animal.
That changed Saturday, when eight cheetahs arrived in central India after a flight from Africa, initiating a great untried experiment for the world: whether a top predator population can be brought back to life in a place where it was long ago hunted into extinction.
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