Cheetah translocated from SA dies in KNP; third fatality in 42 days

BHOPAL: Female cheetah 'Daksha', translocated to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park from South Africa, died on Tuesday, a forest official said.

Daksha became the third cheetah to die in the KNP. Earlier, a female cheetah and a male cheetah died on March 27 and April 23, respectively. ''Daksha was found in injured condition in the morning by a monitoring team of KNP. She was immediately given necessary medication and treatment but she died around 12 noon,'' the official said.

Daksha was released in enclosure number one and two male cheetahs, Vayu and Agni, were released from boma 7 (enclosure) for mating, but it appears that the male cheetahs turned violent during the process which is a normal thing, the official added.

In such a scenario, it is difficult for the monitoring team to interfere while the female cheetah died.

Cheetahs Sasha' and 'Uday', who were shifted to KNP from Namibia and South Africa in separate batches in September 2022 and later, died on March 27 and April 23, respectively, officials had said.