BHOPAL: An eight-year-old female Namibian cheetah, Savannah renamed Nabha in India, died at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) on Saturday, a week after sustaining serious injuries, likely during a hunting attempt inside her soft-release boma.
Nabha had suffered fractures to both the ulna and fibula on her left limbs, along with other injuries, and had been under continuous medical care since. Despite sustained treatment efforts by the park’s veterinary team, she succumbed to her injuries. More specific details are expected following a post-mortem examination, the KNP said in an official statement.
Savannah was one of eight Namibian cheetahs brought to Kuno on 17 September 2022, marking the world’s first intercontinental translocation of cheetahs a part of India’s ambitious project to reintroduce the species after over 70 years of extinction due to rampant poaching.
She received the name Nabha in April 2023 through a public naming contest, following an appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraging Indians to rename the translocated cheetahs.
Following Nabha’s death, Kuno now houses 26 cheetahs nine adult Namibian and South African cheetahs (six females and three males), and 17 India-born cubs. Among them, 16 cheetahs are free-ranging in the wild and have shown promising adaptation, including successful hunting and cohabitation with other predators such as leopards.
In a preventive move especially considering health challenges faced during previous monsoon seasons all surviving cheetahs have recently received anti-ectoparasitic treatment.
Two cheetah mothers, Veera and Nirva, along with their recently born cubs, are reported to be healthy and thriving.
Separately, India’s second African cheetah habitat the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in western Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur and Neemuch districts currently hosts a South African male coalition, Prabhas and Pavak. The brothers were relocated from Kuno on 20 April 2025, as part of efforts to diversify and expand the cheetah population beyond KNP. Both are said to be hunting regularly and are under round-the-clock monitoring by tracking teams.