Multiple cheetah deaths in Kuno raise questions about habitat limits, prey scarcity, and management. A data-driven look at the challenges facing India’s cheetah project T wo back-to-back cheetah deaths—one from a suspected collision inside the forest and another caused by a speeding vehicle—have once again pushed the spotlight onto the ambitious yet troubled cheetah introduction project in Kuno National Park . While officials have issued preliminary statements, the absence of publicly released post-mortem and investigation reports related to the past such cases has deepened concerns about transparency at a time when clarity is essential. The recent incidents highlight the ecological and management challenges that continue to shape the project’s uncertain trajectory. Each Loss Is Significant Setback On December 5, Friday, one of Veera’s cubs recently released into the open forest, died after reportedly separating from its mother. Just two days later, on December 7, another young cheetah...
Two days after the death of Sasha, the female cheetah in Kuno national park, there is good news coming from the jungle . Siyayya another Namibian cheetah, still in an enclosure gave birth to four cubs. As the officials celebrate the occasion, they call cubs “ 4 Indian cheetahs after 75 years”. Under chetah translocation propject, 8 cheetahs were brought from Namibia on September 17 last year.
Born In An Enclosure
Siyayya is still living in a 150 hectare enclosure inside Kuno national park where “she had interacted with Freddie and Elton, the two males “. After the 8 Namibian cheetahs were airlifted to Kuno and quarantined before their release to different enclosures, the two males were released in a bigger enclosure - number 4- of about 150 hectare. Siyayya was released also in the neighbouring enclosure number 5. First they interacted from behind the wired fence but sometime around third week of December the gate between the two enclosures separating them was opened leading to mating, said an official of theUnion ministry of forest ,environment and climate change who is part of the cheetah project and action plan. The gestation period of cheetah is about 90 days and we were expecting good news, he said. Though only 5 % cheetah cubs survive to adulthood, Siyayya has an advantage of living inside an enclosure where there is minimum risk of predators.
Also read: More Questions On Cheetah Project in Kuno
When in the wild, mothers keep their cubs hidden in their dens for 6 to 8 weeks to keep them protected from lions, hyenas and leopards among others. “The main factor for their survival for the first 60 days is their ability to stay hidden from the predators”, officials said adding, “we will have to ensure that there would be no predators inside the enclosure where Siyayya is looking after her new born.” “Here it is almost like nursing home conditions inside her enclosure but lets us see how long and how many of them survive . You can’t predict with the wildlife animals” , they said. Siyayya was not released in the open jungle of Kuno . But three males including Freddie, Elton and one female- Asha- were released earlier this month. Two females, Savannah and Tiblis were not found fit for their release in the wild. There are wild cheetah but were bred in captivity and may not survive in the wild. The eighth cheetah Sasha died two days ago
By Deshdeep Saxena
Pictures Courtsey Kuno national park
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