Another cheetah that was brought from Namibia in September 2022 died in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.
Since 2023, eight of the 20 cheetahs translocated from Africa and their five cubs born in India have died in Kuno National Park. There are now 12 adult cheetahs and 12 cubs in the national park.
In a press release on Tuesday, the state forest department said that the cheetah named Pawan, who was the only free-ranging cheetah in the national park, was found lying “near the edge of a nala [drain] amidst bushes without any movement”. It added that the drain was overflowing due to the rains.
“Vets were informed and on closer inspection, it was found that the front half of the body including head was inside the water with no external injuries seen anywhere on the body,” the release said.
The preliminary cause of death appeared to be drowning, the department said, adding that further details would be known after the post-mortem report comes in.
“Remaining 12 adults and 12 cubs born on Indian soil are doing good,” the release added.
Pawan was among the first batch of eight cheetahs brought from Namibia to India in September 2022, The Print reported. Another batch was flown in from South Africa in February 2023.
After completing a stipulated period inside an enclosure, Pawan became the first cheetah from his batch to be released into the wild in March 2023. The cheetah covered over 300 km after being released, The Print quoted unidentified officials from Kuno as saying.
Pawan’s death was reported weeks after a five-month-old cheetah cub died at Kuno National Park on August 5.
The cub was born to a cheetah named Gamini, also among those translocated from South Africa and Namibia to Kuno. Gamini had given birth to six cubs in March. In June, her first cub died.
In September 2022, cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.
The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.
Also read: The dark clouds over India’s cheetah project