New Delhi: Four cheetah cubs, barely a month old, were found dead and partially-eaten near the forests of Kuno National Park on Tuesday morning. The cubs were born to an Indian-born cheetah, KGP-12, on 11 April. It was the first time cheetah cubs were born in the wild as part of Project Cheetah.
However, this conservation milestone was short-lived as the cubs barely survived a month in the wild before being found dead on 12 May. According to the forest department, the four cubs were found by a tracking team in the Sheopur Territorial Division, a forest area outside the core area of Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh.
The incident comes a day after Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav visited Kuno National Park to release two female cheetahs from Botswana into the wild. Now, the total number of cheetahs in the country stands at 53.
While the carcasses have been sent for a postmortem to find the exact cause of death, they were found in a partially-eaten state, indicating that a wild animal was probably responsible. The forest department did not make any claims; however, experts ThePrint spoke to said it could be leopards or other wild animals.
“The core area of Kuno National Park has been rid of leopards due to the threat they pose to cheetahs, but not the adjacent forests. Maybe a leopard attacked the newborn cubs,” said Ajay Dubey, a wildlife activist from Madhya Pradesh.
The forest department, in their press release, said that the cubs—which were being tracked by a monitoring team—were last observed on Monday evening and were found to be healthy. Since they were all found dead the next morning, the department said it could be predation by another animal.
KGP-12, the mother, is safe and healthy. She is one of the 13 cheetahs that are currently free-ranging in the park; 37 other cheetahs continue to stay in soft enclosures. Three more cheetahs—two male and one female—are located in the Gandhisagar Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
Also read: What’s the status of Project Cheetah? Two of the Botswana cheetahs released in Kuno
Not the first casualty
This is not the first time that Kuno National Park has seen the death of a newborn cheetah cub. In 2023, when the first litter of cheetah cubs were born in India under Project Cheetah, three out of four died within weeks due to health reasons. However, KGP-12 and her cubs were important not only because they were the second generation of Indian-born cheetahs, but also because they were the first ‘wild birth’.
Earlier, all cheetahs born in India were born in soft enclosures or bomas, where they would be protected from predators and other harms.
The Kuno National Park authorities have sent the bodies for post-mortem and a detailed investigation into the deaths has been ordered. The officials said that the rest of the cheetahs in the park, including the two recently released ones from Botswana, are doing well.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)