Female Cheetah ‘Daksha’ dies in Kuno National Park, 3rd such death in 40 days

Female Cheetah ‘Daksha’ has died in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National park on Monday, as per a statement from MP Chief Conservator of Forest JS Chauhan.

Daksha’s death marks the 3rd fatality in the region in 40 days. 

The first of these deaths was a Namibian cheetah that died on March 27 from conditions involving its kidney. A South African cheetah followed this cat roughly 4 weeks later and died on April 24th. A postmortem report cited heart and lung failure as cause of death for the South African cat. Experts, however, believe it to be a condition tied to natural death in case of Cheetahs. 

Daksha was brought in from South Africa alongside other cheetahs in hope to repopulate and increase India’s Cheetah population. 

The cheetah’s death also comes among times of extreme scrutiny for Kuno National Park. Critics have routinely criticised the park for holding more Cheetah’s than the region’s 748 sq km terrain could support. 

The park had made the decision to test the area’s capacity and had receieved permits to release five more Cheetahs into the wild - three female and two male. 

“The free-roaming cheetahs will be allowed to move out of Kuno and will be recaptured only if they venture into areas where they might be in “significant danger,” an official from the National Tiger Conservation Authority had said in support of the decision.

The decision to release these five cheetahs into the wild stemmed from a visit from South African experts on April 30th. These experts deemed the five fenced cats as fit for the wild. 

All cheetahs were in good physical condition, making kills at regular intervals, and displaying natural behaviour,” the experts noted in their report. 

The remaining 10 will remain indoors till they are deemed fit to join the wild.

The Indian Environment Ministry brought 12 cheetahs from South Africa and eight others from Namibia back in the last 8 months.  By bringing these Cheetahs to India, the Ministry hopes to repopulate and help the Cheetah population of the country thrive once again.