Eighth cheetah dies at Kuno National Park: No mismanagement says minister; Cong slams MP govt, PM

Three days after Tejas's death, another male cheetah died at Kuno National Park. Officials said the actual cause of death can be ascertained after getting the postmortem report.

Gwalior :A male cheetah, Suraj, died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, taking the death toll of big cats to eight since inception of the ambitious Project Cheetah on September 17, 2022.

South African cheetah, Suraj was released to the open forest from the quarantine enclosure on June 25. The forest department's patrol team found his body in the early morning hours. His death has left the forest officials in shock. Suraj's postmortem is currently underway following which, the actual cause of death can be ascertained, said officials.

Suraj's death comes three days after another male cheetah, Tejas succumbed to his injuries. Tejas died on Tuesday following traumatic shock in a violent fight with a female cheetah. The monitoring team had found injury marks on the upper part of Tejas's neck. A team of veterinarians and forest officials rushed to the spot and the cheetah was found dead around 9 AM, he said. "This is for the first time that a cheetah died in the free range, he added.

There were injury marks on his back and neck, and a detailed report was awaited, the official said. Only three days ago another translocated male cheetah, Tejas, had died at the park. "The exact cause of (Suraj's) death will be known from the post mortem report," MP forest minister Vijay Shah said.

Queried abut the fatalities, he pointed out that the three cubs that died were malnourished from birth itself, while other deaths were from fights during mating or eating, which is common among animals.

Rejecting any allegation of mismanagement leading to the deaths, Shah said," The entire Indian government, (South) African government, Namibia government, entire team of GoI, entire hawk force is involved in the management of cheetahs and everything is being done as per their directions." "Therefore, it is not proper to say these (deaths) were due to negligence. The PMO (Prime Minister's Office) is keeping a close watch on everything. Everything is being done on the direction of the PMO. There is no negligence on our part," he asserted.

Meanwhile, MP Congress chief Kamal Nath took the state government to task over the eight deaths claiming the latter had not come forward with any plan or taken the initiative to conserve the big cats. Without naming the PM, Nath also said "making wild animals an object of display for political show doesn't look nice for an elected representative".

"I urge those responsible for it (upkeep of the big cats) to consult environmentalists and scientists to chalk out a plan immediately which will protect the lives of these animals," Nath added. Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh ridiculed the Centre over the cheetah deaths and said "photographer Modiji" must click pictures of the incident. The PM had been photographed taking pictures of the cheetahs when they had landed in KNP from Namibia in southern Africa on September 17 last year as part of an ambitious reintroduction programme after the big cat went extinct in 1952.

On May 25, two cheetah cubs had died reportedly due to dehydration and extreme weather conditions. Prior to which, male cheetah, Uday died due to cardio-pulmonary failure on April 23 and on March 27, a female cheetah, Sasha died due to kidney ailment. A total of five adults and three cubs have died so far.

Earlier, the Centre had denied of lapses behind the deaths of the cheetahs. But, forest officials are uncertain about the exact reason behind the cheetah deaths. "We are waiting for the postmortem report of Suraj to say as to what exactly led to his death," officials said.

Eight Namibian cheetahs, including five females and three males were brought to Kuno pm September 17, 2022. Later this year, on February 18, 12 more cheetals, namely seven males and five females were brought to Kuno from South Africa.