Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Vijay Shah on Friday spoke about the death of the eighth cheetah at Kuno National Park (KNP) saying that it is common among wild animals to die fighting over food or mating, while postmortem is being done and more information pertaining to Male cheetah Suraj's death is awaited. The cheetah named Suraj, translocated from Africa, died at KNP on Friday, forest officials said, taking the number of wild cats that have died at the park in Sheopur district since March this year to eight.
"I have received the information but a postmortem is being done. I will be able to say anything about the causes only after that. This is common among wild animals. We don't include the cubs in this but the remaining (deaths) were due to fights over food or mating. This is common among wild animals," the Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister told news agency ANI.
"According to us, it is the third or fourth cheetah as we don't count the cubs because they were those who would not survive. A team of the Government of India has come and we are also contacting the African team. The reasons are yet to be revealed. There was no hunting, they (cheetahs) died amid fighting," he added.
Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh took a dig at the Modi government saying all that can be hoped for is that conservation science prevails over political prestige.
"Today should have been a day of unadulterated joy with the launch of Chandrayaan-3. Sadly, the news has just come in that the eighth cheetah has died at Kuno," the Congress general secretary wrote on Twitter.
"The expert group would surely be examining what is going wrong repeatedly. All that can be hoped for is that conservation science prevails over political prestige," he added.
The Principal Chief Conservator of the Forest said that there are frequent deaths in such projects. "If these deaths are taking place naturally then we shouldn’t panic. We are trying to ensure that no further deaths take place. All necessary actions are being taken," he added.
The eighth death came after three days ago, another translocated male cheetah, Tejas, had died at the park.
Suraj was found lying still in Palpur East Forest Range’s Masavani beat by a monitoring team on Friday morning.
When they went closer, they found insects hovering over its neck but it then rose and ran away, said an official, as per news agency PTI.
A team of veterinarians and forest officials rushed to the spot and the cheetah was found dead around 9 AM, the official said.
"This is for the first time that a cheetah died in the free range," he added, as quoted by PTI. There were injury marks on his back and neck, and a detailed report was awaited, the official added.