The forest department said that the reason for the death is not known yet. “This morning, one of the female cheetahs – Dhatri (Tiblisi) — was found dead. To determine the cause of the death, a post-mortem is being conducted,” the statement read as reported by PTI. As per the forest department this is the sixth adult Cheetah death in the national park.

As per the statement, While 14 cheetahs — seven males, six females and one female cub are kept in the bomas in Kuno, a female cheetah is out in the open and is being intensively monitored by a team. Efforts are on to bring her back to the boma for a health examination.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the eight cheetahs (5 females and 3 males) brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park on the occasion of his birthday on September 17, last year, as part of an effort to revive the extinct cheetahs in India. Another 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February this year.

Earlier on 1 August, The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) told the Supreme Court that they have identified potential sites in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for Cheetah introduction. The NTCA had further told the top court that the provisional diagnosis of mortality events points towards natural causes and none of them died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution etc. Earlier the Supreme Court expressed its concern on the death of Cheetahs in KNP and had asked the Centre to take some positive steps regarding this.

The Madhya Pradesh forest department is on high alert and seriously monitoring the health conditions of the Cheetah following the death of cheetahs in the past few months. Excluding today’s death, since March this year, five adult cheetahs and three cubs had died at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district.

Updated: 02 Aug 2023, 02:27 PM IST