Another cheetah that was brought from Namibia in September 2022 died in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, reported ANI.
Before this, six out of the 20 cheetahs that had been translocated from South Africa and Namibia and three cubs born in India had died.
The male cheetah, Shaurya, died on Tuesday as a medical team failed to revive him after tranquilising him.
“Around 11 am, incoordination and staggering gait was observed by the tracking team following which the animal was tranquilised and weakness was found,” Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Director Lion Project said in a press release. “Following this, the animal was revived, but complications arose post revival and the animal failed to respond to CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation].”
The director of the lion project added that the cause of death can be ascertained after post-mortem.
This comes as cheetah experts from South Africa and Namibia had told the Supreme Court last year that the deaths of some of the felines in Kuno National Park could have been prevented by better monitoring and timely veterinary care.
In letters to the Supreme Court, the experts have raised concerns about the management of the translocation project. The experts said that they had been “ignored” and only used as “window dressing”, The Indian Express reported.
In September 2022, the cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.
The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.
Also read: The dark clouds over India’s cheetah project
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