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Madhya Pradesh: On Tuesday afternoon, Another cheetah has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, which was brought from Namibia in September 2022. The Namibian cheetah was identified as Shaurya. With the death of Shaurya, seven adult cheetahs and three cubs born in India have died since March 2023.
In a statement, The director of the cheetah relocation project has emphasised that determining the exact cause of Shaurya’s death requires a comprehensive post-mortem examination. The statement said,”Around 11 am, incoordination and staggering gait was observed by the tracking team following which the animal was tranquilized and weakness was found.”
It added,”Following this, the animal was revived, but complications arose post revival and the animal failed to respond to CPR. Cause of death can be ascertained after post-mortem.” The feline displayed signs of distress, including incoordination and a staggering gait, leading to a tranquilising attempt for assessment.
According to the report, A total of 20 animals were relocated from Namibia and South Africa to Kuno National Park in two batches under the government’s Project Cheetah. The first batch came in September 2022 and the second in February 2023. The last and the ninth cheetah death in Kuno was reported August 2 last year. The government had in the parliament cited infections caused by insects during monsoon season as the cause for the last two deaths.
The project is India’s ambitious attempt to re-introduce cheetahs in the wild in the country. Cheetahs became extinct in the country nearly seven decades ago. As many as 20 of adult big cats were brought from abroad to the Kuno park again in 2022. The cheetahs were imported in two batches – from Namibia (2022) and South Africa (2023).
In August 2023, a female cheetah ‘Dhatri’ was found dead in Kuno National Park. Dhatri was one of the two remaining female cheetahs that were still out in the wild when it was found dead. On September 17 last year, The initiative began when Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a group of cheetahs brought from Namibia into an enclosure in Kuno. Four cubs were born in the park since, but three of them and six other adults died in a span of five months ending last August .
