'Architect of Kuno': IFS officer removed as MP's chief wildlife warden

JS Chauhan, a highly respected officer with expertise in wildlife conservation, is considered as the architect of Kuno National Park

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) government on Monday removed Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer JS Chauhan as the state's chief wildlife warden on Monday, reported news agency PTI.

He was replaced by Asim Srivastava, a 1988 batch Indian Forest Service officer.

The change comes amid the death of cheetahs in the state's Kuno National Park, of which Chauhan is regarded as the chief architect, according to The Indian Express.

Twenty cheetahs were translocated to the park from South Africa and Namibia. In less than four months, eight have died, including those born in India.

Sasha, the first cheetah to die from kidney disease, passed away on March 27. Uday, the second feline, died on April 24 from cardiopulmonary failure. Daksha, the third one, died on May 9 during a mating attempt. In May, three cubs born in India died. Tejas, the seventh cheetah, died on July 11, and Suraj, the eighth, died on July 14.

The news comes just a day after Chauhan told The Indian Express that he was thinking about removing radio collars from ten Cheetahs to monitor for infections.

"The radio collar is not fatal, but it can be a contributing factor and must be addressed," he said.

Chauhan made the remarks after experts suggested that the cheetahs may have died as a result of infection caused by radio collars.

The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change, on the other hand, rejected the claims, stating that they were not based on scientific evidence and that "all mortalities are due to natural causes."

Adrian Tordiffe, a South African cheetah expert who was involved in the translocation project, said he is "shocked" that Chauhan was removed.

"He was an expert and quite a sensible man," Tordiffe was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct. The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. The country's last sighting of wild cats was in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests of Chhattisgarh's Koriya District.

In February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that India has the opportunity to restore a lost element of biodiversity by reintroducing felines.

However, experts say that India lacks the habitat and prey species for African cheetahs and that the project may fall short of its goal of grassland conservation.