New Delhi: Two Indian-born 20-month-old cheetah cubs died in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh over the past three days—while one was found dead inside the forest Friday, the other was hit by a car Sunday.
Their carcasses have been sent for post-mortem by the Kuno National Park forest officials, while legal measures have been taken against the speeding vehicle that killed the cub.
This is the first recorded instance of a cheetah being killed by a vehicle in India since the introduction of Project Cheetah in 2022. With these deaths, the total number of cheetahs in Kuno has come down to 27, with 19 cubs and eight adults.
Early on Sunday morning, forest officials inside the Kuno National Park were tracking two cubs of a South African cheetah, Gamini, as they had strayed out of the KNP area.
The two cubs were seen crossing NH-46, the Agra-Mumbai National Highway, near Gwalior district’s Ghatigaon village around 6:30 am. The spot is about an hour away from the KNP core area.
“It was all very sudden, because the team was tracking the two cubs and was right behind them, but suddenly a car came speeding and struck one of the cubs,” Kuno National Park field director Uttam Kumar Sharma said.
The male cub died instantly, and the carcass was taken for post-mortem by authorities.
The other cub, according to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, is healthy and fine, and they know that it is now within range of the national park.
The department said they have registered a forest offences case, and have informed the police too. According to the latest update Sunday night, one suspected vehicle has been stopped in Rajasthan’s Kota by the local police in connection with the probe.
However, the forest department refused to share further information about the case or action taken.
Gamini has four cubs – two male and two female. She was released into the wild in March 2025, along with her cubs. She lost one male cub in the accident.
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‘Separated from family’
This wasn’t the only death to strike Indian cheetahs in the past week. Another incident, involving another South African cheetah and her cubs, took place Friday, within a mere 24 hours of the cheetah being released into the wild.
On Thursday, South African cheetah Veera was released into the wild with her two 20-month-old cubs in the Parond area of the Kuno National Park. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav released the three cheetahs to mark the occasion of International Cheetah Day on 4 December.
Earlier, Veera and her cubs were kept in soft bomas or enclosures inside the park. On Thursday, the forest department said they were ready for the release, and that they will be monitored and tracked through advanced radio-tracking.
Within 24 hours, around the late afternoon 5 December, one of Veera’s cubs was found dead inside the forest.
An official statement on the incident read that the cub had strayed away from its mother and its sibling at night, and was found by the forest patrolling team.
The statement did not talk about the exact cause of death and the KNP field director too declined to comment, leaving it to until after the post-mortem.
Sharma just said, “Veera and her other cub are doing fine…and we are regularly tracking them as they make their way in the wild.”
The Project Cheetah
The Project Cheetah, the central government’s scheme to reintroduce cheetahs into the wild in India, began in 2022 with the arrival of eight Namibian cheetahs to Kuno. Twelve more big cats were brought from South Africa in February 2023.
Of these 20, nine adults died over the months. Ten cubs born in India also couldn’t survive.
After the latest fatalities, Kuno has 16 cheetahs in the wild. The rest are inside soft enclosures in the park, including Mukhi and her litter of five cubs that were born on 20 November. Additionally, there are three cheetahs in Gandhi Sagar National Park.
The next phase of the project will involve bringing a third batch of eight cheetahs, this time from Botswana, by December.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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