Great News For Project Cheetah As Three More Cubs Are Born In Kuno National Park

The ambitious reintroduction of Cheetahs in India has tasted yet another success as three more cubs have been born in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on social media that a Namibian Cheetah named Jwala has given birth to three cubs.

Second litter of Cheetah cubs this year

This is the second litter of Cheetah cubs to be born in Kuno this year and the third since their reintroduction to India in September 2022.

On January 3, Kuno National Park officials reported that Namibian cheetah Aasha had given birth to three cubs.

In March 2023, another Cheetah, Jwala gave birth to four cubs, but only one of them survived.

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Cheetah reintroduction project?

Jwala and Aasha were among the first cheetahs translocated to India from Namibia under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Project Cheetah'.

The first batch of eight cheetahs was introduced in India in September 2022.

The second batch of 12 cheetahs was flown in from South Africa last February.

The first-of-its-kind transcontinental species reintroduction project is aimed at repopulating Cheetahs, the only large carnivore species that went extinct in independent India in their historic habitat.

BCCL

10 Cheetahs have died so far

However, Project Cheetah has had its share of setbacks to the point where many including wildlife experts and environmentalists have called for it to be suspended.

So far, 10 cheetahs including seven adults and three cubs have died in Kuno National Park.

The latest to die was a Namibian cheetah named Shaurya, which passed away on January 16.

According to the additional chief conservator of forest and the director of the Lion Project at Kuno, a tracking team noted signs of incoordination and a staggering gait in Shaurya, prompting an immediate medical intervention.

The cheetah was tranquillised and weakness was determined during a medical examination and despite reviving it through medical intervention, the big cat developed some post-revival complications that eventually resulted in its demise.?

Cheetahs straying out of KNP

Officials in KNP had also failed to keep track of the movement of the Cheetahs out of the protected area.

Ever since they were released from the enclosure, Cheetahs -- Asha, Oban (Pavan) and Agni had strayed out of KNP.

In fact, Agni had wandered all the way into a forest in Rajasthan's Baran district forcing authorities to tranquilise and bring it back.

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