Three Cheetah Cubs Die In MP's Kuno National Park Within A Week, Expert Warns 'Worst Still To Come'

In a major setback to Project Cheetah, two cubs of Cheetah Jwala died on Thursday due to sweltering heat at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The cubs died during monitoring while being in a weak condition, news agency ANI reported. The first cub of Cheetah Jwala died on May 23.

A female cheetah Jwala who was brought from Namibia at Kuno National Park has given birth to four cubs in March this year. Now only one cub of Jwala is alive.

ALSO READ: Cheetah Deaths: South African Female Cheetah Dies In MP's Kuno National Park, Third Death In 3 Months

With the death of two cubs, the number of fatalities of Cheetahs has been marked to six. Notably, in the past few months, three Cheetahs have already died at the National Park, raising fingers at the Kuno management and administration.

On May 9, a female Cheetah named Daksha, who was also brought from South Africa died in Kuno National Park. The officials said Diksha died in a "violent interaction" with the Phinda adult male coalition, which included Vayu and Agni and is also known as the White Walkers. Daksha's death was the third such death that took place in the last three months.

Earlier, Uday, one of the several cheetahs that were brought to India from South Africa died while being treated for his illness. Uday's death was the second death after the death of five-year-old Sasha who died on March 27.

Responding to the fatalities of the Cheetahs, South African wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe, India should fence two to three habitats for cheetahs because there has never been a successful reintroduction into an unfenced reserve in recorded history.

"There has never been a successful reintroduction into an unfenced reserve in recorded history. It has been attempted 15 times in South Africa and it failed every time. We are not advocating that India must fence all of its cheetah reserves, we are saying that just fence two or three and create source reserves to top up sink reserves," Van der Merwe told PTI.

In April, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department had written a letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, requesting an "alternate" site for the cheetahs at Kuno, where three adult cheetahs have died in less than two months.

(With Agencies Inputs)