One more cheetah died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, as confirmed by a senior official associated with Project Cheeta.

The death of Cheetah is the sixth death at the Park of an adults feline since March.

“This morning, one of the female cheetahs – Dhatri (Tiblisi) — was found dead. To determine the cause of the death, a post-mortem is being conducted,” the forest department’s statement read.

14 cheetahs- seven males, six females and one female cub, are kept in the bomas in Kuno, a female cheetah is out in the open and is being intensively monitored by a team. Efforts are on to bring her back to the boma for a health examination, a statement by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department said.

Under Project Cheetah, a total of 20 radio-collared animals were imported from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP and later four cubs were born from Namibian cheetah ‘Jwala’. Out of these 24 feline, nine including three cubs have died.

The Supreme Court had on July 20 observed the death of cheetahs in the Kuno National Park doesn’t present a “good picture”. The top court had on May 18 expressed serious concern over the cheetah deaths at KNP and asked the Centre to rise above politics and consider shifting them to Rajasthan.

It had told the government that from reports of experts and articles, it appeared that Kuno National Park is not sufficient to accommodate such a large number of cheetahs and the Union Government may consider shifting the animals that went extinct from the country in 1947-48 to other sanctuaries.

Source: TheHindu