Days after six cheetahs, brought to India as part of a translocation project, died, another African cheetah was reported to have sustained injuries after a fight with other cheetahs at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district. Divisional forest official PK Verma said Agni, the injured cheetah, was undergoing treatment and in good health.
"Cheetahs Gaurav and Shaurya, translocated from Namibia, got into a fight with Agni and Vayu (who were brought from South Africa) around 6 pm on Monday in the free range area of KNP, Verma was quoted by PTI as saying. Officials then sounded "sirens and burst crackers in a bid to break up the fight", he added.
Soon after the incident, Agni was tranquilised and doctors started treating it. The cheetah was stable and in good health. Verma said such fights are a normal occurrence.
Five female and three male cheetahs were brought from Namibia and were released into enclosures at the KNP on September 17, 2022, as part of an effort to revive the extinct cheetah population in the wild in India. Another 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February 2023.
Six cheetahs, including three of the four cubs born in the park, have died since March.
Sasha, one of the translocated Namibian cheetahs, was among the three adult cheetahs who died earlier. While Sasha died due to a kidney-related ailment on March 27, another cheetah, Uday, from South Africa, died on April 13. Daksha, a cheetah brought from South Africa, succumbed to the injuries following a violent interaction with a male during a mating attempt on May 9 this year.
The four cubs of Siyaya/Jwala were the first to be born in the wild on Indian soil after the last cheetah was hunted in the Korea district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947. Five female and three male cheetahs brought from Namibia were released into enclosures at the KNP at an event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022.
Following the incident, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) constituted a Cheetah Project Steering Committee to review progress, monitor and advice the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the NTCA on cheetah relocation in the state. The "task force" will be responsible for providing suggestions on the "community interface and for their involvement in the project activities", the government said in a press release in May.
First Published: Jun 28, 2023 1:04 PM IST
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