A cheetah brought from South Africa in an effort to revive the extinct population of the speckled carnivores in India has died in the Kuno national park in Madhya Pradesh state, the second such fatality in less than a month.
Veterinarians examining the carcass of the six-year-old male named Uday said he died on 23 April of cardiac failure in the Kuno nature reserve, which is also in the eye of a blistering pre-summer heat wave sweeping India’s plains.
“Uday was struggling to walk and was panting before he collapsed and died,” a forester told reporters visiting the 749-square kilometre national park.
He was one of 12 cheetahs relocated from South Africa on 18 February 2023 in a gala event announced as the world’s first project to re-introduce the slender cats to a region where they became extinct in 1952.
Last year, India imported eight Namibian cheetahs including five males. Tragically, one of the three adult female cats in that batch died of kidney failure in Kuno on 27 March.
Major Indian conservation effort
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the forefront of national celebrations for the cheetahs when they arrived on board a commercial jet painted in the colours of the legendary feline hunter.
A long wait is over, the Cheetahs have a home in India at the Kuno National Park. pic.twitter.com/8FqZAOi62F
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 17, 2022
Separate events marking India’s 50 years of tiger conservation this month followed the fanfare for the cheetahs.
Modi pledged to broaden the South Asian nation’s ecosystem and find homes for other sub-specifies.
Jasbir Singh Chauhan, Kuno’s chief wildlife warden, said the park was stepping up surveillance of its feline guests.
All due precautions are being taken. They are monitored every day and visuals are captured about their movement and health is observed,” Chauhan told reporters at the park which also hopes to kick off a conservation project for lions.
“It is risky to keep all of them in one place,” the official said in Kuno, which was chosen as the ideal habitat because of the bountiful prey.
I congratulate the entire team of Project Cheetah for their relentless efforts in bringing back cheetahs to India and for their efforts in correcting an ecological wrong done in the past.
— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) March 29, 2023
Four cubs born in India
The park has since been blessed with four cubs from one of the Namibian cheetahs.
But experts say lack of modern transport and equipment make the task of park protectors difficult.
“Imagine having to patrol hundreds of kilometres on bicycles and armed with just torches and sticks?” said a forest guard referring to regular reports of wildlife poaching.
The official also said he has asked the government to pick another suitable habitat for cheetahs, the only large carnivore officially declared extinct in India.
Thirty-six tigers were killed by suspected smugglers last year in Madhya Pradesh.
“It is not just challenging but perilous,” a forest guard said without willing to be named.
Some 10,000 Asiatic cheetahs roamed the Indian wild in the 16th century and the creature was the most coveted status symbol of royalty because they were easy to tame and were kept leashed like dogs and used for royal hunts.
Mughal emperor Akbar had around 9,000 cheetahs in his personal collection.
The Indian cheetah met its nemesis in Madhya Pradesh maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo who killed the last three cheetahs in 1947, five years before they were officially declared extinct.
