Kuno National Park Updates:
On Wednesday morning, a female cheetah named “Dhatri” was discovered dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. A post-mortem is being performed by officials to determine the cause of death.
This is the sixth fatality to occur at the Kuno National Park since March, where 20 cheetahs were brought in from South Africa and Namibia as part of the ambitious Project Cheetah program. The effort hopes to bring back these majestic cats, which went extinct in India about seven decades ago, to the country’s landscape.
Three babies that were born from the cheetahs brought from Africa are among the nine cheetahs that have passed away.
Different things have been implicated as the causes of these deaths. Intra-species conflicts, illnesses, mishaps before and after release, and wounds received while hunting are a few potential explanations, according to some specialists. Heatstroke and animal predator attacks have also been mentioned as potential causes.
The use of radio collars on cheetahs is likewise controversial. Some experts contend that the persistent moisture throughout the monsoon season caused by these collars, which are meant to track and monitor the animals, has resulted in skin illnesses. According to reports, these diseases attracted flies, which then brought to maggot infestations and septicaemia, a deadly blood infection that killed several of the cheetahs.
“NON ALARMING”
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) say that the fatalities are due to natural causes and are not overly concerning. They claim that none of the cheetahs have perished from causes other than natural causes, such as poisoning, traffic accidents, electrocution, or poaching.
Several steps have been made to guarantee the wellbeing of the remaining cheetahs in response to the fatalities. All remaining cheetahs must be captured and given crucial medical examinations, as well as preventative treatment and consultation with international experts for more training and capacity building in cheetah management.
Despite these initiatives, the high mortality rate among the reintroduced cheetahs raises major questions about the project’s feasibility and the survival of these wonderful animals in India.
