Female cheetah dies at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh; ninth death since March
NEW DELHI: One more cheetah died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday morning, making it the ninth feline to die since March, according to a statement from the state forest department.
A female adult cheetah, Tiblisi aka Dhatri has been reported dead taking the overall death to nine at the MP national park.
Importantly, Dhatri is the second African cheetah to die in the open jungles within 19 days, after the death of South African male Suraj in the open jungles on July 14. All other deaths (four adults and semi-adults and the three cubs) had died in the bomas (enclosures).
“We’re conducting the autopsy of Dhatri’s carcass, once the post-mortem report is out, we will be able to find the cause of the death,” principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF-Wildlife) Aseem Srivastava said.
According to an official statement by the state government, “All the 14 cheetahs (seven males and six females and one cub) kept in the bomas at KNP are healthy and their health is being regularly monitored by a team comprising Kuno wildlife veterinarians and the Namibian expert. Two remaining females were out in the open and were being intensively monitored daily by the Namibian expert, Kuno veterinarian and management team and efforts were underway to bring them back to the boma for their health examination. On Wednesday morning one of the two females, Dhatri (Tiblisi) was found dead and to determine the cause of death, a post-mortem is being conducted.”
As per sources, attempts were made to track the two females in the forests and bring them back to the bomas like the other cheetahs for medical examination. They would have been set free along with other cheetahs in the free-ranging jungles after the monsoon was over.
While Nirwa has been largely untraceable in the jungles for the last few days (possibly as her radio collar isn’t working), Dhatri couldn’t be brought back to the bomas despite sustained efforts.
Under Project Cheetah, a total of 20 radio-collared cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were trans-located to KNP in MP in September 2022 and February 2023. In March, four cubs were born to Namibian cheetah Siyaya aka Jwala, but since March, 6 semi-adults and adults and three out of the four cubs, have died.
Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have submitted to the Supreme Court, that the death of five adult cheetahs and three cubs at KNP is troubling but not "unduly alarming", and the surviving big cats are being captured and medically examined as a precautionary measure.
The joint affidavit, filed on behalf of the environment ministry and NTCA, said the provisional diagnosis of mortality events point towards "natural causes" and none of the cheetahs have died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution etc.