The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has constituted a Cheetah Project Steering Committee to review progress, monitor and advice the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the NTCA on cheetah relocation in the state. The decision was taken after six cheetahs, who were brought as part of the translocation project, died in the last two months.

As per a press release by the government, Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General of the Global Tiger Forum will head the committee. "The Steering Committee shall be in force for a period of two years and will hold at least one meeting every month, besides taking field visits as and when required," the government's statement said.

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The "task force" will be responsible for providing suggestions on the "community interface and for their involvement in the project activities".

"Panel of International cheetah experts shall be consulted for advice or invited to India as per specific requirement," it added.

The terms of Reference of the Steering Committee also include opening the "Cheetah habitat for eco-tourism" and suggesting regulations in this regard.

Six cheetahs die in 2 months

India's ambitious cheetah population revival program suffered a setback after three India-born cheetah cubs died at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh this week. Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, had given birth to four cubs in the last week of March after being translocated from Namibia in September last year.

Forest department officials blamed the sweltering heat for the death of three cubs on Tuesday. When the three cubs died on May 23, the mercury was above 45 degrees Celsius, he said, adding that the cubs were born during the hostile time of the year in terms of temperature, news agency PTI reported.

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Apart from the three cheetah cubs, three of the 20 adult cheetahs translocated from South Africa and Namibia died at the KNP, casting aspersion on the fate of the much-hyped large carnivorous revival programme.

Sasha, one of the translocated Namibian cheetahs, was among the three adult cheetahs who died earlier. While Sasha died due to a kidney-related ailment on March 27, another cheetah, Uday, from South Africa, died on April 13. Daksha, a cheetah brought from South Africa, succumbed to the injuries following a violent interaction with a male during a mating attempt on May 9 this year.

The four cubs of Siyaya/Jwala were the first to be born in the wild on Indian soil after the last cheetah was hunted in the Korea district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947. Five female and three male cheetahs brought from Namibia were released into enclosures at the KNP at an event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, 2022.

Another 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa in February 2023 and housed in a quarantine enclosure.

Cheetah's mortality rate

"Cheetahs naturally have high mortality rates," South African wildlife expert Vincent van der Merwe was quoted by PTI as saying.

He informed that only 8 percent of the mortalities recorded in the South African metapopulation in the last 10 years is due to cheetahs killing each other. Only 5 percent of this involved males killing females, said Van der Merwe.

First Published:May 26, 2023 1:34 PM IST