Christmas may have just passed us by, but that doesn’t mean the presents have concluded! In the dry shrubbery of Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh lies not two, not three, but a litter of four extremely snuggly baby cheetah cubs!
These cubs were birthed by Jwala, a particularly feisty Namibian Cheetah that was translocated to our country as part of India’s Project Cheetah. All in all, these births have reignited a glimmer of hope for the cheetah reintroduction program, which has already suffered from ten tragic deaths since its inauguration in 2022.
In celebration of the four newborns, let’s take a look back at the saga traced by these majestic cats since their introduction to Kuno.
September 17, 2022: Eight cheetahs imported from Namibia
To re-establish a viable and free-ranging cheetah population in India within what used to be their natural habitat in the country, the first eight cheetahs were transported to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. Initially kept in big hunting enclosures for acclimatisation, the five female and three male cats were called Asha, Oban, Sasha, Savannah, Siyaya, Elton, Freddie and Tbilisi.
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February 18, 2023: 12 cheetahs transported from South Africa
After the Namibians, 12 more South African cheetahs were flown into Kuno National Park. These included seven males and five females from the country’s Phinda and Rooiberg Reserves. While these new Cheetahs were assuredly in good health, experts were concerned about five-year-old Sasha, who had begun to suffer from kidney problems.
March 24, 2023: Siyaya gives birth to four cubs
In a massive win for Project Cheetah, Namibian cheetah Siyaya gave birth to four cubs, marking the first cheetah birth on India soil in 70 years since their extinction in our country. Unfortunately, the cubs were found to be weak, underweight and poorly hydrated.
March 2023: Sasha dies of kidney ailment
Just six months after her reintroduction, female Namibian cheetah Sasha died of a kidney infection. Sasha’s creatinine level rose to precarious levels, due to which the cat was receiving treatment in a quarantine enclosure after contracting the infection in Namibia, according to sources. All other translocated cheetahs were reportedly healthy at the time.
April 2023: All cheetahs given Indian names
Scouring through over 11,000 suggestions, a selection committee chose new names for all the reintroduced cheetahs. The Namibian cheetahs were called Aasha, Pavan, Nabha, Jwala, Gaurav, Shaurya and Dhatri. The South African cats were renamed Daksha, Nirva, Vayu, Agni, Gamini, Tejas, Veera, Suraj, Dheera, Uday, Prabhas and Pavak.
April 24, 2023: Uday dies of cardiac failure
In a tragic and relatively quick course of events, South African cheetah Uday died of cardio-pulmonary failure a mere week after being released from its quarantine enclosure. Authorities had observed Uday being extremely uncoordinated and unable to lift his head, and suspected he might’ve suffered from a potential brain haemorrhage.
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May 9, 2023: Daksha found “fatally injured”
Marking the third fatality in little over a month, South African cheetah Daksha was found “fatally injured” by the park monitoring team. Despite prompt treatment, she died in the afternoon. Authorities suspect Daksha’s wounds might have been the result of a violent altercation with other males in the park during a courtship or mating process.
March 23-25, 2023: Three of Jwala’s cubs die of weakness
Two months after birth, one of Jwala’s, formerly known as Siyaya, cubs died in Kuno National Park. Forest officials added that the cub died of immense weakness. A couple of days later, two more cubs passed away. The fourth and final cub was found to also be critical, and had been placed under observation.
July 11, 2023: Tejas, unable to recover from a fight, dies
In a tragic series of three, almost back-to-back deaths, 5.5-year-old cheetah Tejas was found dead. The male South African cat was already underweight and weak at the time. After entering a fight with a female cheetah, Tejas suffered from traumatic shock that eventually led to his demise. Authorities later found infection in his lungs and kidneys, along with a nasty maggot infestation. Tejas’ death dropped total cheetah numbers to 17 from a total of 24.
July 14, 2023: Suraj dies of fatal neck and back injuries
A few days after Tejas, South African cheetah Suraj also passed away at Kuno. Suraj marked the eighth translocated cat to die in the last five months. Initial observations showed injuries on his neck and back. Experts began worrying that extremely wet conditions were making the cats susceptible to more infections.
August 2, 2023: Dhatri dies of maggot infestation
Project Cheetah’s ninth fatality, female cheetah Dhatri, was found dead almost a month after Suraj. Post-mortem revealed that the cause of death was another maggot infection, making Dhatri to be the third cat to pass to such a cause in the Park. Suspecting that the cats’ monitoring collars could be contributing to the rise in infections, authorities revealed that they had removed collars from all cheetahs in captivity until they had safer material tested.
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January 3, 2024: Aasha delivers three cubs
In a monumental start to the New Year, Namibian cheetah Aasha gave birth to three new cubs in Kuno, producing the second litter of cats to grace Project Cheetah. Fathered by Pawan, the cubs will have teams monitoring them to heighten their chances of survival.
January 16, 2024: Shaurya dies suddenly
One-half of the rockstar duo, Shaurya (aptly named Elton earlier), died during treatment. The Namibian cat was found staggering as it walked, perhaps suffering from some form of weakness. Post-mortem is underway to determine the exact cause of death.
January 23, 2024: Jwala gives birth to four cubs!
Mere weeks after Aasha, Jwala delivers the second litter since her introduction into Kuno. While authorities had announced the birth of three cheetahs, later observation revealed that the litter actually had four snuggly cubs! This development has raised the number of Kuno cheetahs to 21 — 13 adults and eight cubs.
NOTE – This article was originally published in weather and can be viewed here
Tags: #Births, #cheetah, #climate, #climatechange, #Deaths, #environment, #Gamini, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #Kuno, #nationalpark, #nature, #Oban, #Savannah
