A 19-month-old male cheetah cub has died after allegedly being injured by pellets in Madhya Pradesh. The incident marks the first suspected shooting of a cheetah since the species was reintroduced to the country in 2022.
According to local reports, veterinarians performed surgery on the animal and removed five firearm pellets from its body. However, it succumbed to its injuries on Tuesday morning.
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The cub was initially found injured on Sunday in the Pahargarh range of the Morena forest division and was subsequently taken to a veterinary institute in Jabalpur for treatment, the Indian Express reported.
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“The pellets were removed from the cheetah cub's body during an operation,” veterinary doctor Shobha Jawre was quoted as saying.
Madhya Pradesh's principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden Sameeta Rajoura said: “Subsequent CT scan showed that foreign bodies had damaged the cheetah's internal organs, musculoskeletal system and nervous system.”
She added: “Despite surgical intervention and sustained efforts by the veterinary team, the male cheetah could not be saved.”
India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said in a statement on Wednesday that it had taken the cheetah's death “seriously.”
“Viewing the matter with utmost gravity, the Centre has deputed a high-level team for an on-ground investigation into the incident, given the critical importance of Project Cheetah and the need to ensure the highest standards of protection for the reintroduced population of the Big Cat.”
The state government has launched an investigation into the incident and constituted a Special Task Force (STF) to identify those responsible. Investigators are probing a suspected poaching attempt and exploring the possibility of human-wildlife conflict.
JS Chauhan, a former chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh who was known as the “architect of Kuno National Park”, tells The Independent: “This is certainly a very alarming kind of situation”.
He demanded that “the present regime must investigate it thoroughly and bring the perpetrators to justice”.
Chauhan said residents are familiar with the animals and understand that cheetahs do not pose a threat to human life, making the situation surprising. However, he pointed out that some villagers have access to firearms.
Wildlife conservationists have also expressed concern following the cheetah's death in Kuno National Park.
Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has called for a CBI investigation into the incident, questioning how a cheetah could be shot and injured despite being monitored by 18 teams. He stressed that the matter warranted a thorough probe, given its links to an international wildlife project, Hindustan Times reported.
More than seven decades after cheetahs were hunted to extinction in India, eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia and South Africa to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh in 2022 as part of an initiative to reintroduce the species to the country.
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