One more cheetah has been found dead in the Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, government sources confirmed to The Hindu — the fifth adult to have died since 20 of the beasts were translocated from Namibia and South Africa a year ago. Officials at the Environment Ministry, nodally in-charge of Project Cheetah, have not explained the recent death, though it is learnt that a post-mortem is on and a meeting, involving several senior officials, was under way as of late Friday.
The latest death of the cheetah, nicknamed Surya, comes two days after another of the animals, nicknamed Tejas, was found dead. The latter was a “captive” animal, meaning it was still in the specially designed enclosure called a boma. Surya on the other hand was among the 12 cheetahs which are free ranging and roaming in the wild. One person familiar with the project said Surya may have died of injuries but was also grossly underweight and his organs, following an autopsy, were “diseased.”
Though there isn’t a clear analysis of the cause of Surya’s demise, a person — on condition of anonymity — told The Hindu that there was an injury on the back of the animal’s neck and it may have been sustaining an infection.
Of the 20 animals, 12 are in the wild. Surya is the only one of the animals in the wild which has died, with the rest of the deaths among the animals in captivity. Other than the five, three of the four cubs born to one of the animals, also died in May. Those involved with the programme say cheetahs were relatively “delicate” animals compared to the tiger, lion and leopard and more deaths were likely in the future. Independent experts have however said that keeping the animals for extended periods in quarantine conditions, prior to their arrival in India, had “weakened” them.
