Cheetah Death in Kuno: On a terrible Wednesday morning, a female cheetah named 'Dhatri' was discovered lifeless in the renowned Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
Authorities have initiated an inquiry and a post-mortem examination to identify the reason for her tragic death.
This is the ninth cheetah death since March, giving a major blow to Project Cheetah, an ambitious programme aimed at reintroducing these gorgeous felines to the Indian environment after they vanished over seventy years ago.
Twenty cheetahs were introduced from South Africa and Namibia as part of the operation to help repopulate the area.
Three lovely cubs born from imported African cheetahs are among the nine casualties.
The causes of these deaths have been attributed to a number of events, including intra-species fights, infections, accidents before and after their release, and hunting injuries.
Predatory assaults by other animals and heatstroke have also been recognised as potential contributory factors.
The use of radio collars on cheetahs for tracking and monitoring has also caused controversy. Some specialists say that the persistent moisture caused by these collars has resulted in skin illnesses during the monsoon season.
These infections allegedly attracted flies, resulting in maggot infestations and septicaemia, a potentially lethal blood infection that killed some of the cheetahs.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have sought to calm anxieties, claiming that the deaths were caused by natural causes and are not cause for concern.
They clearly deny that cheetah deaths were caused by manmade causes such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, traffic accidents, or electrocution.
Among the activities undertaken are the capture and examination of all remaining cheetahs, the administration of preventative medications, and the soliciting of advice from foreign experts in cheetah management.
Despite these measures, the high mortality rate among reintroduced cheetahs raises severe questions about Project Cheetah's feasibility and the survival of these wonderful species in India.
The deaths of 'Dhatri' and the other eight cheetahs are a big setback, and specialists, wildlife enthusiasts, and conservationists are keenly monitoring the situation to ensure that additional precautions are taken to conserve these famous species and avoid similar catastrophes.
The success of Project Cheetah is in jeopardy, and the need to find long-term solutions to ensure the survival of cheetahs in the Indian landscape has never been greater.