Officials Release 2 More Cheetahs In Kuno National Park Free Range, Total Count Increases To 12

Two more male cheetahs were released into the free-range wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district.

Two more male cheetahs, identified as Prabhash and Pavak, were released into the free-range wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district on Monday, said Sheopur's Divisional Forest Officer P K Verma on Tuesday. With this, the total count of cheetahs in the free-range increases to 12. Other five felines and a cub are currently in the enclosures. The senior official also said both of them, including eight Namibian cheetahs, comprising five females and three males, were brought to India from South Africa in February this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17 last year released eight Namibian cheetahs, comprising five females and three males, into special enclosures. This was done under an ambitious programme to reintroduce the species in India.

Meanwhile, since March, six cheetahs, including three cubs born to cheetah Jwala, have died at the KNP, reported PTI. The last cheetah died in India in the Koriya district in present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947, and the species was declared extinct from the country in 1952.

Earlier in May this year, a two-month-old cheetah cub died at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, said the forest department. Prime facie, the cub died of weakness, said the forest department in a release, as per a report by PTI.

"The monitoring team found that one of the four cubs of feline 'Jwala' was lying at the spot where they were spotted earlier while three other cubs were roaming with their mother. The team alerted veterinarians who rushed to the spot and gave necessary treatment to the cub, but it died," the release said.

It seems the cub died because of weakness as it was weak since birth, it said.

“Further details of the cause can be given after the post-mortem will be done,” said JS Chouhan, Chief Conservator of Forest Department, adding that the decision to move the cheetahs to some other place can be taken by the Central government. 

Cheetah Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, was brought from Namibia to KNP in Sheopur district in September 2022. She gave birth to four cubs in the last week of March this year.

Cheetahs, Sasha’ and ‘Uday’, who were shifted to KNP from Namibia and South Africa in separate batches along with other cheetahs, died on March 27 and April 23, respectively, while female feline ‘Daksha’ died on May 9.