Cheetah deaths: Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, MP CM to meet on May 29

Union Forest Minister Bhupendra Yadav and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be meeting to discuss issues related to cheetahs that have been relocated from Namibia and South Africa to Kuno National Park amid the deaths of six of the felines over the last two months, including three cubs born in March, an official said on Friday.

While three of the four cubs born to cheetah Jwala died on May 23, Sasha, one of the translocated Namibian cheetahs, died due to a kidney-related ailment on March 27, and cheetah, Uday, brought from South Africa, died on April 13.

Daksha, a cheetah brought from South Africa, succumbed to the injuries following a violent interaction with a male during a mating attempt on May 9 this year.

Top forest officials from the state briefed CM Chouhan on Friday before the May 29 meeting with Yadav during which the cheetah revival programme as well as ways to bolster it will be discussed, he said.

The officials who briefed Chouhan included Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Ramesh Kumar Gupta, PCCF (wildlife) J S Chauhan and his deputy Subharanjan Sen, he added.

Sources said the National Tiger Conservative Authority (NTCA) has formed an 11-member steering committee to monitor the situation and take important decisions along with the Cheetah Task Force.

The CM has been told the cubs who died recently were underweight at 1.6 kilograms against the ideal weight of 3 kilograms and could not withstand the scorching heat, the official told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Another official said some cheetahs could be shifted to Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary if it was found that Kuno National Park, spread over 784 square kilometres with a buffer zone of 487 square kilometres, faced space constraints.

Some experts contend a cheetah needs at least 100 square kilometres to move around freely in the wild, he said.

The CM has been told Gandhi Sagar will be ready for cheetahs in six to seven months, though Nauradehi will take some more time.

The four cubs, three of whom died, were the first set of cheetahs to be born in India after the species went extinct in 1952.

The last cheetah was hunted down in Korea district of present day Chhattisgarh in 1947.

Five female and three male cheetahs brought from Namibia were released into enclosures at the KNP at an event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022.

Another set of 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February 2023 and are housed in a quarantine enclosure at present.