India: Another cheetah from Africa dies in MP's Kuno National Park; 7th since March

India’s efforts to reintroduce cheetah faced another blowwith the death of a seventh cheetah in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP). The African cheetah died on Tuesday due to suspected infighting, a senior forest department official said.

The male cheetah, Tejas, was one of the 12 that were relocated from South Africa earlier this year. It was brought to KNP in Sheopur district in February this year. With his death, a total of seven felines, including three cubs born to Namibian cheetah ‘Jwala’, have died at Kuno National Park since March.

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"Cheetah Tejas, aged around four years, died in KNP due to suspected infighting," Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife JS Chauhan told PTI.

The feline was in an enclosure at the time of the incident, the official said. According to an official press release, the monitoring team noticed some injury marks on the neck of Tejas in enclosure number 6 at around 11:00 am on Tuesday.

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Soon, a team of veterinarians was called who tranquillised the injured cheetah after getting due approval from authorities. The team reached the enclosure at around 2:00 pm, and found Tejas dead, said the release.

The exact cause of the cheetah’s death is not known and an investigation is underway while waiting for the post-mortem report.

Reacting to the death,Professor Adrisn Tordiffe, one of the experts who travelled from South Africa to India with thecheetahs, said that they had anticipated that these felines would face some difficulty in adjusting to the new environment, but added noted that a proper postmortem is needed to determine the exact cause.

"Something traumatic happened to this cheetahand the only real cause of trauma would be another animal. It looks more like a kill from a leopard other than anything."

"It's very disappointing and sad but we had anticipated there might be some issues because there is high leopard density in Kunu National Park. Cheetahs often get into trouble with lions, leopards, hyenas, andevenwilddogs."

Seventh feline death since March 2023

A total of 12 cheetahs (7 males, 5 females) were translocated to India from Africa on February 18 this year. One of them, named Jwala gave birth to four cubs in March this year, but three of them died due to dehydration and weakness in May.

Another one of the 12 cheetahs, Sasha, succumbed to a kidney-related ailment on March 27.

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Another cheetah named Uday died on April 13. Daksha, a cheetah brought from South Africa, died of injuries following a violent interaction with a male feline during a mating attempt on May 9.

After the death of Tejas, the total count of cheetahs in KNP dropped from 24 to 17.

India’s cheetah reintroduction efforts

The Asiatic cheetahs went extinct in India more than 70 years backdue to habitat loss, poaching, and conflict with humans. To increase the population of the species in the country, India has flown in cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa to its national parks.

The experiment has been permitted by India’s Supreme Court on a short-term basis for long-term adaptation.

(With inputs from agencies)

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