BHOPAL: The Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh witnessed the death of another cheetah, the eighth casualty in the span of four months. The body of a sub-adult Cheetah Suraj translocated from Namibia was discovered by a patrolling team in the early hours of Friday.
This marks the eighth cheetah death since the project's inception on September 17, 2022, launched by Prime Minister. Officials said they are trying to ascertain the exact cause of Suraj's death.
On Tuesday, an adult South African cheetah named Tejas was found dead in an enclosure, where it was housed with a Namibian female for mating.
Post-mortem reports of Tejas showed the cheetah was underweight and his internal body parts were compromised. Possibly because of being internally weak, Tejas was unable to recover from the trauma after the violent clash with a female cheetah, the report said. "Prima facie, the cause of the death is traumatic shock," the report said.
Seven decades after the fastest-moving mammal officially became extinct in India due to rampant hunting, eight Namibian cheetahs were introduced at KNP by PM Narendra Modi on his 72nd birthday on September 17, 2022. Five months later, 12 South African cheetahs were flown to the same national park in MP’s Sheopur district in February 2023, taking the total count there to 20.
In March, Namibian cheetah Sasha died of kidney disease, and in April, South African cheetah Uday died due to cardiac failure. Just weeks later, South African cheetah Daksha died after a violent encounter with male cheetahs during a mating attempt.
The Indian cheetah cubs are seen together shortly after their birth in March. Death of 3 cheetah cubs in India deals blow to reintroduction efforts
In May, three cubs out of a litter of four, born to a Namibian cheetah named Siyaya, died within one week due to “heat, dehydration and weakness,” forest department officials said. The fourth cub was rescued and taken to a local hospital for monitoring.
India’s struggling efforts to reintroduce the cheetah species have been dealt another blow, with the death of Cheetah 'Suraj'