A third cheetah, a female called Daksha, at the Kuno National Park (KNP), in Madhya Pradesh, has died after it was injured by one of its number. Two other animals, Sasha and Uday died in February and April respectively. Daksha’s death brings the total number of adult cheetahs to 17. One of the animals has, produced a litter of four cubs, all of whom are reportedly well.
Since September 2022, 20 animals –eight from Namibia and twelve from South Africa – have been translocated from Africa to restore cheetahs in the Indian wilderness. The population has been extinct since 1952. All the animals are radio-collared and tracked by Madhya Pradesh state wildlife officials. The animals, as part of an acclimatising process, live in specially designed enclosures that allow them to hunt, while being relatively safe. Only three animals are outside the enclosure and live in the forest.
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“Prima facie, the wounds found on the female cheetah Daksha seem to have been caused by a violent interaction with a male, during a courtship/mating attempt. Such violent behaviour by male coalition cheetahs during mating are common. In such a situation, the chances of intervention by the monitoring team are almost non-existent and practically impossible,” the Environment Ministry said in a statement.
The cheetah’s death comes a day after an expert committee, constituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority -the national coordinators of Project Cheetah -recommended that five more cheetahs (three females and two males) be released from the acclimatisation camps at the Kuno National Park into “free-roaming conditions” before the onset of monsoon rains in June.
The committee includes Adrian Tordiffe, Veterinary Wildlife Specialist, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Vincent van dan Merwe, Manager, Cheetah Metapopulation Project, South Africa; Qamar Qureshi, Lead Scientist, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Amit Mallick, Inspector General of Forests, NTCA. They visited the Kuno National Park on 30 April, 2023 and reviewed the current status of Project Cheetah.
The decision to release two male cheetahs into Daksha’s enclosure followed a recommendation by this committee, according to a press statement by JS Chauhan, Chief Conservator of Forests, Madhya Pradesh. The NTCA’s Cheetah Action Plan, the document that guides the management strategy for cheetahs, says that an adult mortality of over 15% “would be a matter of concern for management to intervene.”
The Hindu reached out for comment to multiple officials but they went unanswered until press time.
