After Aasha, now another Namibian cheetah Jwala gives birth to triplets at Kuno National Park
BHOPAL: The Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh reported good news for the second time in 20 days with the birth of triplets to Namibian cheetah Jwala aka Siyaya on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the KNP in Sheopur district of the central Indian state’s Gwalior-Chambal region had reported the birth of triplets to another Namibian cheetah Aasha on January 3.
Sharing the good news along with a video of the newborn cubs on social media platform X on Tuesday morning, the Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav wrote, “Kuno’s new cubs! A Namibian Cheetah named Jwala has given birth to three cubs. This comes just weeks after Namibian Cheetah Aasha gave birth to her cubs. Congratulations to all wildlife frontline warriors and wildlife lovers across the country. May Bharat’s wildlife thrive…”
This is the second time that the Namibian cheetah Jwala aka Siyaya has given birth to cubs at the KNP since its arrival there along with a batch of seven other Namibian cheetahs on September 17, 2022 – the 72nd birthday of PM Narendra Modi.
Earlier, in March 2023, the same Namibian female had given birth to quadruplets (four cubs), but sadly just one of them survived -- a female which is now around ten months old and housed in a separate enclosure.
However, between the birth of these two sets of triplets to two separate Namibian cheetahs within 20 days, the sad news of an adult male Namibian cheetah Shaurya aka Freddy too had been reported from the KNP on January 16. Shaurya aka Freddy and its male sibling Gaurav aka Elton were popularly known as the 'Rockstar' brothers.
With the birth of a second set of triplets within 20 days, the KNP now has 13 adult Namibian and South African cheetahs, a 10-month-old female cub and six newly born cubs – taking the total count of the cheetahs and cubs at the park to 20.
The African cheetahs have been housed at the KNP in MP since September 2022, as part of the central government’s project to reintroduce the fastest moving animal on earth into the wilds of India, from where it became officially extinct due to rampant hunting over seven decades back.
While the first batch of eight cheetahs including two pairs of male siblings were flown into the KNP from Namibia and released later at the park by PM Modi on his 72nd birthday on September 17, 2022, the second batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa was flown in February 2023 to the KNP, taking the total African cheetah count at the park to 20.
Since March 2023, the KNP has reported the deaths of seven adult cheetahs and three cubs, mostly due to infections.