Notably, a Cheetah named Dhatri (Tiblisi) died this week on 2nd August while another died last month on 14 July who was named Suraj. With these, the total number of deaths of Cheetahs at Kuno Park rose to nine, including the death of three Cheetah cubs.

“An infection caused due to the monsoon has come to our notice and we have also lost two Cheetahs due to that infection. We have also shared its information with South Asia, Namibia and International experts. Now we are moving forward on its management issue,” he told the reporters as quoted by ANI.

When he was asked about the translocation of the Cheetahs, he added that no plan was going on in this direction. 

He also said, “Regarding Kuno National Park, I want to say that all our Forest Officers, young veterinarians, are engaged with hard work for the management of the Cheetahs. It is the first year when the translocation of Cheetahs has taken place and the work is going on continuously on the weather condition here and its other effects.”

“Every Cheetah is our responsibility, we share our opinion with the experts from Namibia and South Africa. And I am saying this with complete confidence that we are engaged in this project with full seriousness. We are very much concerned about each Cheetah. We would like this project to be successful. It was a long project in which cheetahs are about to come every year. We accept the sensitivity of the project and we will make this project successful.” he added.

PM 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 2022 as part of an effort to revive the extinct Cheetahs in India. Another 12 Cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February this year.

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

(With inputs from agencies)

Updated: 06 Aug 2023, 06:46 AM IST