One more cheetah, named Dhatri, has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, the state's forest department announced on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities will conduct a post-mortem to ascertain the reason for death.
This marks the sixth adult feline death but the ninth cheetah overall to die in India since the Modi administration's reintroduction project was announced in January 2022.
"This morning, one of the female cheetahs — Dhatri (Tiblisi) — was found dead. To determine the cause of the death, a post-mortem is being conducted," the statement read.
Since Dhatri's death, there is only one remaining female cheetah still out in the open, the statement added. A post-mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of death.
Newly-appointed Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Aseem Shrivastava confirmed the news about the cheetah's death and reiterated that the cause will be known after the post-mortem.
On July 14, the eighth cheetah, a male adult named Suraj, was found dead at the Kuno National Park. At that time, the Government of India revealed that they only considered that the third or fourth death since the "cubs don't count."
Prior to Dhatri, here are the names of the cheetahs that have died:
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This is a developing story with more inputs to come.
First Published: Aug 2, 2023 2:07 PM IST
