Months after Namibian Cheetahs were reintroduced in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, Cheetah Shaurya passed away on Tuesday. The exact cause of the feline’s death was not immediately clear and it will be known only after a post-mortem examination, informed state Forest Minister Nagar Singh Chouhan. This is the 10th death among Cheetahs brought from South Africa’s Namibia in 2022.
Notably, the deceased Cheetah was called “Freddy” before he was translocated from Namibia. After arriving in India, he was renamed as “Shaurya”.
Forest Minister Chouhan said the male cheetah was found not walking properly by the tracking team around 11 am after which it was tranquilised and efforts were made to revive the feline, but they failed.
Complications arose post-revival and the wild animal failed to respond to CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and died at 3.17 pm, the forest department statement said.
10 Deaths So Far
Since March 2023, seven adult cheetahs, including Shaurya, and three cubs have died at the Kuno National Park due to various reasons, taking the toll to ten. Female Cheetah Tblisi was the ninth Cheetah who died in August last year. Tblisi was known for making her first hunt on World Cheetah Day, December 4, 2022.
Earlier in March 2023, Namibian Cheetah Sasha died due to a kidney ailment in the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh. She was among the eight Cheetahs translocated from Namibia and housed in the KNP in Sheopur district by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022.
The adult cheetahs – three females and four males – to have died so far include Sasha (March 27, 2023), Uday (April 23, 2023), Daksha (May 9, 2023), Tejas (July 11, 2023), Suraj (July 14, 2023), Dhatri (August 2, 2023) and Shaurya (January 16, 2023).
One of the four cubs born to translocated Namibian cheetah ‘Jwala’ died on May 23, 2023, and two others on May 25, 2023.
The total number of surviving cheetahs at the KNP now stands at 17 (six males, seven females and four cubs).
Project Cheetah
With an aim to reintroduce Cheetahs to India, Project Cheetah was launched by the Government of India on September 17, 2022, with the translocation of Cheetahs from South Africa to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952. The goal of Project Cheetah is to establish a viable Cheetah population in the country to improve the health of the ecosystems and boost ecotourism.
Under the Cheetah Reintroduction Project, eight big cats from Namibia – five females and three males – were released into enclosures at the KNP on September 17 in 2022. In February 2023, another 12 cheetahs were brought to the park from South Africa.
In December last year, four cheetahs were released into the wild, but two of them were later captured and shifted to bomas (enclosures). One of these two cheetahs, Agni, was tranquilised in Baran district of Rajasthan and brought back to the KNP in December.
(With inputs from PTI)
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