One more cheetah died in the Kuno National Park, Aseem Srivastava, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) told ANI. This takes the death count to nine. This comes as another major setback to the 'Project Cheetah' that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September last year. Last month, African cheetah Suraj was found dead at the national park. According to Kuno officials, the cause of the death is yet to be ascertained.
In July, a female Cheetah 'Nirbhaya' went missing from Kuno National Park leaving authorities clueless about where the big cat might be. The management of the national park has been trying to find the Cheetah but so far, there has been no positive development in the search operation. The incident occured after forest officials drew massive criticism as several Cheetahs here died. To ramp up the search, the trekking team of the Kuno National Park started using drone cameras apart from tracing the missing Cheetah's pug marks. Villagers have told officials that they earlier spotted the animal around the place.
"This morning, one of the female cheetahs -- Dhatri (Tbilisi) -- was found dead. A post-mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of death," the statement read.
Fourteen cheetahs -- seven males, six females and a female cub -- are kept in enclosures in Kuno. A team comprising Kuno wildlife veterinarians and a Namibian expert regularly monitors their health.
One female cheetah is out in the open and is under intensive monitoring by the team. Efforts are underway to bring her back to an enclosure for a health examination, the statement said.
Last month, two cheetahs died due to infection in wounds caused by the radio collars around their necks. However, the environment ministry said all cheetah deaths were due to natural causes.
Experts involved in the cheetah reintroduction project had told PTI that heavy rain, extreme heat, and humidity may have caused the problems, "with the collars fitted around the necks of the cheetahs potentially causing additional complications".
Following the deaths, all the cheetahs, except the two females, were brought back to their enclosures for examination. An expert veterinarian from South Africa cleaned up the wounds. All the cheetahs have been administered Fluralaner, a systemic insecticide and acaricide given orally or topically.
Under the much-vaunted Project Cheetah, a total of 20 animals were imported from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP in two batches -- one in September last year and the second in February this year.
Since March, six of these adult cheetahs have died due to various reasons. In May, three of the four cubs born to a female Namibian cheetah had also succumbed to extreme heat. The remaining cub is being hand-raised for future wildling.
Under the Cheetah Reintroduction Project, eight Namibian cheetahs -- five female and three male -- were released into enclosures at KNP on September 17 last year. In February, 12 more cheetahs arrived at KNP from South Africa.