The ambitious conservation project offers the hope of creating vital new living space for wild cheetah populations but it has drawn both praise and criticism from experts and conservation groups.

A dozen cheetahs -- all cooped up in small boma enclosures for the last six months -- are finally set to embark on a 9,000km journey to a new home on another continent within the next two weeks.

This follows a series of delays in the signing of an official memorandum of understanding between the governments of South Africa and India to move up to 120 African cheetahs to Asia over the next decade.

The plan to re-introduce this charismatic hunting cat species to a continent where cheetahs have been extinct for roughly seven decades has drawn both acclaim and criticism from wildlife experts and conservation groups.

Those in favour believe the conservation project offers the hope of creating vital new living space for wild cheetah populations after a precipitous decline in the species due to relentless human pressure.

However, critics have questioned whether it is still feasible to re-establish the species in Asia while others have characterised the translocation as a "vanity" project that harks back to the days...