Sheopur: In a major setback to Madhya Pradesh government's ambitious Cheetah Conservation Project, another Cheetah died at Sheopur-based Kuno National Park on Friday, taking the total toll to eight so far. Cheetah Suraj was found dead in the morning, merely fortnight after he was released from the enclosure.
This is second death at Kuno in a week. And both the
Cheetahs died due to severe wound on the neck. On Tuesday, South African Male
Cheetah “ Tejas”, aged around 4 years, too had died due to the fatal wound on
the upper area of the neck in Kuno National Park (Sheopur) on Tuesday. Tejas
and a female Namibian Cheetah were kept inside the same enclosure.
This marks the eighth cheetah death since the project's inception on September 17, 2022, launched by Prime Minister. Officials said they are trying to ascertain the exact cause of Suraj's death.
On Tuesday, an adult South African cheetah named Tejas was found dead in an enclosure, where it was housed with a Namibian female for mating.
Post-mortem reports of Tejas showed cheetah was underweight
Post-mortem reports of Tejas showed the cheetah was underweight and his internal body parts were compromised. Possibly because of being internally weak, Tejas was unable to recover from the trauma after the violent clash with a female cheetah, the report said. "Prima facie, the cause of the death is traumatic shock," the report said.
India’s struggling efforts to reintroduce the cheetah species have been dealt another blow, with the death of Cheetah 'Suraj'
Notably, five adult Cheetahs and three Cheetah cubs have died so far at Kuno National Park in Sheopur.
Expert had predicted more cheetah deaths
In May, South African wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe had predicted more cheetah deaths and said that the reintroduction project is going to see an even higher mortality, when the cheetahs would try to establish territories and come face to face with leopards and tigers at the park.
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