Advertisement
Madhya Pradesh: The hopes of reviving the population of cheetahs in the country have suffered a major setback. A leopard died on Monday (March 27) in Sheopur Kuno of Madhya Pradesh. The female cheetah brought from Namibia was ill for several days. A cheetah named Sasha died on Monday morning due to kidney failure.
On behalf of the Kuno National Park, it was said that on the 22nd, the female cheetah Sasha was found lethargic by the monitoring team. On investigation, it was found that he needed treatment after which he was brought to the quarantine enclosure. Examination of his blood sample revealed that he had an infection in his kidneys. Further investigation revealed that Sasha was already suffering from kidney disease before he was brought to India. Sasha died during treatment.
Cheetahs were brought to India from Africa
Two groups of cheetahs came to India from Africa. The first batch came from Namibia on September 17 last year on the occasion of Prime Minister Modi’s birthday. There were eight cheetahs including Sasha in this batch which were released in Kuno National Park. After this, in the month of February last, another batch of 12 cheetahs came to India from South Africa. These 12 cheetahs included seven males and five females. They were also released in Kuno National Park.
Death of sasha cheetah
Sasha, along with the rest of the cheetahs, was adapting well to her new home in India under the care of staff from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department. Sasha’s death is not only a blow to the project but also a huge loss to the biodiversity of the country. Officials are investigating to find out the cause of Sasha’s death. Sasha was a 5.5 year old female Namibian cheetah. Sasha was found in late 2017 in a field near Gobabis, a town in east-central Namibia.
Cheetahs were brought to Kuno
In fact, South Africa and India had signed an MoU last year to bring cheetahs from the African country. After this the cheetahs were settled in Kuno in Madhya Pradesh. Most of the world’s cheetahs are in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Namibia has the largest population of cheetahs. The last cheetah in India was found dead in 1948 in the Sal forest of Koraiya district of Chhattisgarh.
