Six cheetahs in Kuno National Park, radio collars removed for health checks

According to officials, six cheetahs in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh had their radio collars taken off for a “health examination” by veterinarians from the KNP and specialists from Namibia and South Africa.

Notably, since March of this year, three cubs and five adult cheetahs have died at the KNP in the Sheopur district.

An official reported that there are currently 11 cheetahs inside the ‘boma’ (enclosure), six males and five females.

‘So far, the radio collars of six cheetahs have been removed by KNP veterinarians and experts from Namibia and South Africa on the ground of health examination,’ the official said.

The official identified the cheetahs without radio collars as Gourav, Shourya, Pavan, Pavak, Asha, and Dheera, adding that ‘the condition of all these cheetahs is healthy.’

Six cheetahs’ radio collars had been taken off, according to a statement made in an official statement on Saturday, ‘for the purpose of health examination by the veterinary team of Kuno along with experts from Namibia and South Africa.’

Aseem Shrivastava, the chief wildlife warden for Madhya Pradesh, did not go into detail about why the felines’ health was being examined.

Twenty radio-collared animals were brought from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP as part of Project Cheetah, and four cubs were later born to Namibian cheetah ‘Jwala.’ Eight of these 24 cats, including three cubs, have passed away.

According to the environment ministry, on July 16 media reports linking the deaths of 20 adult cheetahs imported from Namibia and South Africa to things like radio collars were based on ‘speculation and hearsay without scientific evidence’ and that five of the 20 adult cheetahs died of natural causes.

The development of a Cheetah Research Centre with facilities for rescue, rehabilitation, capacity building, and interpretation is only one of the actions the ministry claimed had been planned to help the cheetah initiative.

On July 20, the Supreme Court ruled that the deaths of eight cheetahs in the KNP in less than a year do not paint a ‘good picture’ and urged the Centre to stop treating the matter as a matter of public opinion and look into the possibilities of moving the animals to other sanctuaries instead of making it an issue of prestige.