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New Delhi. Another dead cheetah was found by a patrol party in the Masavani Beat of Palpur East Forest Range in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on Friday morning. The name of the leopard that died was Suraj. After which Project Cheetah has suffered a major setback. With this, the number of dead cheetahs has gone up to 8, including 3 cubs. These deaths have taken place in less than four months. According to the Environment Ministry, five of the 20 adult cheetahs brought from Namibia and South Africa died of natural causes. The ministry( government ) said in a statement that “out of 20 adult cheetahs brought to India from Namibia and South Africa, five adult cheetahs have been reported dead, as per preliminary analysis, all deaths are due to natural causes.”
The statement said that the Cheetah Project Steering Committee of the Center is closely monitoring the progress of the project and their work is satisfactory. The government has deployed a dedicated team of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to work closely with field officials.
What is Project Cheetah In September last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released 8 cheetahs (three males, five females) brought from Windhoek, Namibia, at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. For the first time after independence, the intercontinental transfer of wild cat species has been done.
Subsequently, 12 more cheetahs were successfully translocated from southern Africa to Kuno National Park in order to re-establish the species in India, taking the number to twenty. After being kept in quarantine for a few days, the cheetahs were moved to larger adaptation enclosures. Currently, 11 cheetahs are in free-living conditions, while five, including a cub born in India, are in a quarantine enclosure
One cheetah ready to come to India first from Africa with 11 other cheetahs
The project aims to provide up to 100,000 km² of habitat in legally protected areas and an additional 600,000 km² of habitat for the species to benefit cheetah conservation efforts globally. A government statement said that cheetahs play an important ecological role within the carnivore hierarchy and their presence is expected to improve the health of the ecosystem in India.
Are satellite collars responsible for the death of the cheetah?
Madhya Pradesh wildlife officials claim that a surveillance team spotted ‘Sooraj’ in a lethargic condition around 6.30 am in the Masavani beat of Palpur East region. According to a report in The Indian Express, the surveillance team saw a fly around the cheetah’s neck and when they tried to get closer, it flew away.
The publication quoted a wildlife official as saying that when the surveillance team saw the cheetah in a bad condition, it immediately informed the Palpur control room via wireless. A wildlife medical team and regional officials reached the spot at 9 am. On finding out the location of Cheetah, when he reached there, Cheetah was dead.
In both deaths, a wound was found near the neck, a wound on the skin below the collar that had caused flies to buzz over it, leading to life-threatening septicemia.
Adrian Tordif, associate professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, reportedly said that humid and humid weather can also lead to bacterial infections. The humid and humid weather keeps the skin under the collar constantly wet. Because of this flies sit on it and lay eggs there and the larvae or maggots of flies start eating the tissue and wound it which is the cause of infection.
Vincent van der Merwe, a South African cheetah metapopulation expert, also suggests that the excessively wet conditions may have resulted in radiocollar infections and may have been the cause of the cheetah deaths.
Wildlife officials in Madhya Pradesh are carrying out an exercise to remove radio collars from 10 free cheetahs in the Kuno National Park. The reports said that wildlife officials had found that cheetah brothers Gaurav and Shaurya, brought from Namibia, had a similar condition. problem has appeared.
Government denies role of radio caller in cheetah’s death
The environment ministry has categorically rejected reports that radio collars are responsible for the deaths of cheetahs, terming it as “speculation and rumour” that has no scientific basis. The ministry said that the Cheetah project is still in progress and it is too early to judge its success or failure within a year. ,
Rajesh Gopal, head of the Cheetah Project Steering Committee, said that the cause of death of the cheetahs could be septicemia (blood poisoning by bacteria) from the use of radio collars. “It is very unusual, I have also seen it for the first time. It is a cause of concern and we have instructed (MP forest staff) to check all the cheetahs.” He said that it is possible that the use of radio collars in humid weather can lead to infection.
