MP: One more Cheetah dies at Kuno National Park in Sheopur

Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh) [India], August 2 (ANI): Another Cheetah named Dhatri (Tiblisi) died at Kuno National Park situated in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, an official said on Wednesday.

With this, the total number of deaths of Cheetahs in the state has risen to nine, including the death of three cheetah cubs. Confirming the death of the Cheetah, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Aseem Srivastava said that a postmortem is being conducted and the cause will be known after its report.

“A sad news has been received today that a female cheetah named ‘Dhatri’ has died. Post-mortem is being conducted to ascertain the cause of her death. After the post-mortem we can tell the reason behind its death,” Srivastava added.

Talking about the frequent death, he further said, “If we get information about the survival rate of cheetahs in South Africa and Namibia, there also the rates are very low. The Cheetahs have been translocated here to a new place, so it is an experimental project and it is also mentioned in the order of the Supreme Court that this project has to be implemented like an experiment, so it is clear that we will take lessons from our learning and will forward. Almost every death of the cheetahs that have occurred so far have been due to natural causes only.”

According to a release issued by the forest department, 14 cheetahs (07 males, 06 females and 01 female cub) kept in bomas in Kuno National Park are healthy and their health is being regularly monitored by the team of Kuno wildlife veterinarians and the Namibian expert.

“2 remaining female cheetahs that are still out in the open, are being intensively monitored daily by the Namibian expert, Kuno veterinarian and management team and efforts are being made to bring them back to the boma for their health examination. On Wednesday morning one of the female cheetahs, Dhatri (Tiblisi) was found dead,” the release said, adding that a post mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of the death.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh former Chief Minister and State Congress chief Kamal Nath had slammed the BJP-led government and alleged that all cheetahs will die due to mismanagement of the state government.

“All cheetahs will die due to mismanagement of the BJP government. Be it women, be it cheetahs or be it adivasis, no one is safe in Madhya Pradesh,” he had said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the eight cheetahs (5 females and 3 males) brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park on the occasion of his birthday on September 17, last year, as part of an effort to revive the extinct cheetahs in India. Another 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February this year.

The cheetah was declared extinct from India in 1952. Under the ambitious Project Cheetah of the Indian government, the reintroduction of wild species particularly cheetahs was undertaken according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines.

India has a long history of wildlife conservation. One of the most successful wildlife conservation ventures ‘Project Tiger’, which was initiated way back in 1972, has not only contributed to the conservation of tigers but also to the entire ecosystem.