Another Cheetah Dies In Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park

Another Cheetah brought to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park from South Africa died during treatment after falling sick.

A male cheetah named Uday died on Sunday in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (representative image).

Another Cheetah brought to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park from South Africa died on Sunday during treatment after falling sick. The Reason for death is yet to be ascertained, said MP Chief Conservator of Forest JS Chauhan. The male cheetah, named Uday, was found to be sluggish around 9 am. However, despite the best efforts of the vets and cheetah conservation experts, Uday passed away around 4 pm.

Uday was brought to Kuno along with 11 other cheetahs — Daksha, Nirva, Vayu, Agni, Gamini, Tejas, Veera, Suraj, Dheera, Prabhas, and Pavak. They arrived in India on February 16 this year. Uday was an adult male brought from South Africa's Waterberg Biosphere.

Uday was among the seven males in the first batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa to be relocated to Kuno National Park. The exact cause of death will be revealed after an autopsy.

Uday is the second cheetah under the big cats' reintroduction programme to have died. Last month, a female cheetah named Shasha, which was among the eight Cheetahs brought from Namibia, passed away due to kidney failure. She was reportedly suffering from kidney problem and dehydration. 

On the celebration of his birthday on September 17, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released eight cheetahs, including three females obtained from Namibia, at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district. Shasha was observed to be frail and required more medical testing.

Meanwhile, one of the cheetahs translocated from Namibia gave birth to four healthy cubs on March 29. 'Siyaya', the mother, and the cubs were reported to be fine and healthy. A female cheetah generally gives birth 90 to 93 days after mating. As Namibian cheetahs were brought to India in September, Siyaya would have mated after her arrival in Kuno. All these are part of the government's 'Project Cheetah', a reintroduction plan for the big cats in India.

The last cheetah in India died in 1947 in the Koriya area of what is now Chhattisgarh and in 1952 the species was officially declared extinct in the nation.