The story so far: This week, three of the four cheetah cubs that were born at the Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, died from natural causes. In response, the government has constituted a new committee of experts that will monitor Project Cheetah.
Why was Project Cheetah launched?
India’s cheetah relocation programme is perhaps among the most ambitious of its kind in the world. The attempt is to, over the next decade, bring in five to 10 animals every year until a self-sustaining population of about 35 is established. Unlike cheetahs in South Africa and Namibia, which live in fenced reserves, India’s plan is to have them grow in natural, unfenced, wild conditions. At Kuno, only six of the 17 adults are in the wild with the rest lodged in large, specially designed enclosures to help the animals acclimatise to Indian conditions. The plan is to release all the animals into the open by the year-end. The animals are radio-collared and tracked 24/7. But “interventions,” said Dr. Qamar Qureshi, who is part of the expert committee and a prominent big-cat expert, “are to be exceedingly rare and only in the case of emergencies”.
How did the cheetah cubs die?
On May 23, forest officials tracking the cheetahs observed that one of the cubs, barely two months old, seemed disoriented and was unable to trail its mother, Jwala, as part of their regular jaunts. A closer inspection revealed that the cub was unable to lift itself and, despite an examination by veterinarians, soon died. The remaining three, though mobile, did not appear healthy and this prompted the vets to take the animals in for a closer inspection. Two of the cubs were subsequently discovered to be exceedingly frail and malnourished and, by the evening of the same day, they too had died. While a post-mortem was conducted, the cause of death has been attributed to “extreme heat, weakness and malnutrition”. All the cubs were underweight. One of the cubs is reportedly well and though weak, is recovering rapidly. The authorities plan on raising the cub for a month and attempt reuniting it with its mother.
Are these deaths unusual?
The death of three of four cubs — the first litter born in India — comes on the heels of the death of three adult cheetahs. Earlier this month, an adult female, Daksha, died following injuries involving a skirmish among the animals. Two other animals, Sasha and Uday, died in March and April from renal infection and cardiovascular problems, respectively. Experts say that cheetah cubs in the wild have a very high mortality rate compared to tigers and lions. Cheetah cubs have a survival rate of only 10% and roughly the same fraction makes it to adulthood, a press release from the Environment Ministry noted on Wednesday. A classic study of the causes of cheetah mortality by Karen Laurenson of the University of Cambridge, in 1994, attributed 66% of deaths to predation, and about 16% to “abandonment by the mother”. But given that these animals were in protected enclosures, such conjecture does not yet apply to the Indian cheetah. Experts have also said that this was the first litter born to the Namibian cheetah, which itself was not truly wild and was ‘hand-bred’ and, therefore, ‘inexperience’ on the mother’s part in tending to her cub may have played a part.
How successful has Project Cheetah been so far?
In September 2023, it will be one year since a batch of eight cheetahs from Namibia arrived in India. They were followed by 12 others from South Africa in February 2023. The official Cheetah Action Plan, the guiding document behind the project, observes that even half the cheetahs surviving the first year would be “an indicator of success”. Independent critics have, however, argued that there are some basic flaws in the project. For one, it is a mistake to have had all 20 cheetahs at Kuno as there is too little space and prey, given that the animal is a courser and needs larger fields of play. Some animals should have gone to the Mukundara reserve in Rajasthan. Forest officials in Madhya Pradesh have also admitted that they are stretched. However, the officials in the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the nodal agency of the Environment Ministry tasked with coordinating the project, say that Kuno is capable of hosting the first lot of animals and future batches will be sent to other reserves. The experience of raising cheetahs in fenced reserves in Africa can’t be replicated in India, say experts, because India’s cultural values promote coexistence with beasts, and that underpinned the success of tiger, lion and leopard conservation programmes.
