Another Cheetah, Uday, Dies At MP’s Kuno National Park Less Than A Month After Sasha

UDAY, one of the several Cheetahs that were brought to India from Africa, has now become the second one to die in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. Uday died during treatment after falling sick.

"The reason for death is yet to be ascertained," Chief Conservator of Forest Chauhan JS Chauhan said, according to a report by ANI. Uday died on Sunday. Earlier, on March 27, Sasha - a five-year-old female Cheetah - had died due to kidney related ailment.

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Between the deaths of Sasha and Uday, it has been less than 30 days. However, doctors found that Sasha was suffering from a kidney infection even before she was brought to India. She was one of the eight big cats that were brought to India from Namibia in 2022.

Uday was one of the Cheetahs brought to India from South Africa in the first batch. There were 12 Cheetahs in that batch. Five of them were females, while seven were male - including Uday. They were translocated to India on February 17, earlier this year.

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The re-introduction of Cheetahs in India is an ambitious programme of the BJP-led Central government. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the Cheetahs brought from Namibia in Kuno National Park on the occasion of his birthday on September 17, 2022.

Yadavendradev Jhala, a wildlife scientist who was part of the Cheetah re-introduction programme, claimed that Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh does not have enough prey to sustain all the Cheetahs, according to a report by the Hindu. Cheetahs had gone extinct from India in the year 1952. This had happened mostly due to excessive poaching by British authorities and native royals in colonial India.

The eight Cheetahs were brought to India from Namibia as part of ‘Project Cheetah’ last year. The project is government’s effort to revatalise and diversify the country’s wildlife and habitat. Then 12 more Cheetahs were brought to India from South Africa and released in the Kuno National Park in February this year.

Helicopters of the Indian Air Force were used to translocate these 12 Cheetahs from Gwalior to the Kuno National Park. The government has claimed that the reintroduction of wild Cheetahs in India, under Project Cheetah, was undertaken according to the guidelines of International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Notably, India has the largest population of wild tigers in the world. The country had launched one of the most successful wildlife conservation programmes ‘Project Tiger’, way back in 1972. Tigers have a very wide habitat in India and are well suited to its clime.

(With agency inputs)