To mark the 72nd birthday of India’s prime minister, on 17 September 2022, eight African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus; currently classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN) were transported from Namibia to India. The national and global interest generated by the culmination of this decade-long plan provided hope for cheetah range restoration initiatives. We argue, however, that the current action plan1 is ecologically unsound, costly and may serve as a distraction rather than help global cheetah and other science-based conservation efforts.