Radio collars of six Cheetahs removed for their health examination: Forest official 

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 24 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava on Monday said that the radio collars of six Cheetahs were removed for their health examination at Kuno National Park.

The forest department is on high alert and seriously monitoring the health conditions of the Cheetah following the death of eight cheetahs in the past few months. Notably, since March this year, five adult cheetahs and three cubs have died at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district. “Under the guidance of a team of our veterinarians and experts from South Africa and Namibia, we are trying to conduct a health test of all the Cheetahs. And if any medical help is required then it can be provided to them. In view of this, we are trying to bring all the Cheetah into the enclosure for once at Kuno National Park and under this, so far 11 Cheetahs have been brought into the enclosure. Of these, radio collars of six cheetahs have been removed for their health examination on the basis of consultation with veterinarians and experts,” PCCF Shrivastava told ANI.

When asked when will these cheetahs be again released into the wild, he said that further action would be taken on the consultation of the veterinarians and experts.

On being questioned whether new types of radio collars are being prepared for the monitoring of the cheetahs, he replied, “Without collars, we can’t monitor the activities of these Cheetahs, so, the collar would remain. Since experts are available, they would advise us whether the collars need modification or not. The collar does not cause the infection as they were already there when Cheetahs came to India.”

Talking about the health conditions of the cheetahs, the PCCF said that all the cheetahs were healthy at the moment.

Under Project Cheetah, a total of 20 radio-collared animals were imported from Namibia and South Africa to KNP. Later, four cubs were born to the Namibian cheetah ‘Jwala’.
Out of these 24 felines, eight including three cubs have died. (ANI)