Considering that two cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park translocated to India last year from South Africa and Namibia as part of Project Cheetah have died in the last week, the expert advisory committee overseeing the implementation of Project Cheetah has recommended that all the animals undergo a thorough, physical medical review.
Overall eight cheetahs have died so far- five adults and three out of the four cubs born to one of the animals also died.
The medical review recommended will involve recalling even the animals which have been released into the wild and investigating if the radio-collars dangling from their necks may be indirectly abetting infections, multiple sources confirmed to The Hindu.
Since September 2022, when the first Cheetahs came in, eleven of the animals have been released into the wild, while four are in one square-km enclosures called bomas, where they are in conditions similar to captivity.
What prompted the recent recall of the animals was the latest fatality; a cheetah named Surya died from a wound on its neck that was then infected with maggots. The larvae of the maggots were also found on the radio-collar and this fatally infected the animal, according to Rajesh Gopal, who chairs the apex steering committee monitoring the cheetah project.
While the Committee expert says radio collars have never been an issue with these animals and the Ministry calls the concerns about the collars “speculation”, finding out the cause for the latest fatality may not be enough.
Some cheetah deaths were expected initially as the reintroduction project was an experiment to have a stable population of the wild cat over a long period of time. However, what experts have pointed out as being strange is that mortalities happened in the enclosed bomas where they were far less expected and when the cats are in the wild. In fact, the most recent fatality, Surya, is the only one to have died in the wild.
The Environment Ministry’s official statement emphasised that all the animal deaths so far could be attributed to “natural causes.” It is important to note at this juncture, however, that it would do good for the authorities right now to address some of the existing concerns around Project Cheetah. It has been pointed out by multiple experts that Kuno National Park may not be enough to handle all the cats and that the staff there is stretched. Experts have also recently recommended roping in more and senior veterinarians in order to understand the health conditions of the felines and for better monitoring of the reintroduction programme.
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Published - July 17, 2023 03:39 pm IST