A year after Kuno, new home for next lot of cheetahs

Cheetah Steering Committee head Dr Rajesh Gopal, who was at the sanctuary, scouting for locations, told The Sunday Express, “It will take time but the area is very promising. It looks like Masai Mara (in Kenya). It has open glades, a rocky area, shallow soil… exactly like east Africa.”

But there’s much work to be done. “We have started building a prey-revival area, but currently there are no prey, it will take time. We can’t rush this unless there is sufficient prey,” he said.

Kuno currently has 15 cheetahs that have been brought back from the wild following a spate of deaths due to infections. A National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) official said that “one Namibian female died of kidney ailment; a South African female cheetah died in a courtship conflict; while three male South African cheetahs and a female Namibian cheetah died of dermatitis/skin infection”.

The cub and his mother Jwala (in the backdrop)

Some officials from MP and South African cheetah experts have said radio collars may have caused abrasions during wet weather, leading to an infection, though the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change denies this.

The steering committee has suggested that cheetahs with thinner coats be introduced in India as the previous batch had “thicker winter coats” that did not suit humid weather conditions in the Indian monsoon.

Forest officials said the “winter coats which developed in anticipation of an African winter” may have resulted in “cheetahs scratching their necks, resulting in infections”.

“I have suggested that cheetahs from the northern hemisphere be brought to India. They are more suitable for the Indian climate. Dry climate is ideal for cheetahs because it supports gregarious groups of fast running animals, which can be hunted by cheetahs,” Gopal said.

“We are also working on introducing state-of-the-art lightweight radio collars, and an NTCA member is working on this. They are not the sole reason for the deaths. It may have been a contributing factor, among others,” Gopal said.

Wildlife officials are also scouring other locations like Nauradehi, apart from Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary. Earlier this month, a BJP Jan Ashirwad Yatra was pelted with stones by villagers near Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary who were allegedly angry over the fencing of their lands by the forest department.

Officials at Kuno are, meanwhile, focused on formulating a cheetah safari programme.

“We expect this to take at least two years and are currently at a planning stage, chalking out the funding strategies and identifying the cheetahs which will be introduced to the safari,” Kuno Director Uttam Sharma said.

A key lesson officials have learnt is the need for better tracking. Nirva, the female South African cheetah, was one of the last felines to be darted and brought back to KNP by officials tasked with removing the radio collars of free-ranging cheetahs. They had to rely on drones, elephants and traditional tracking methods after its radio collar stopped functioning.

Kuno Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar said that now, a team of nine persons will track each cheetah and be equipped with state-of-the-art binoculars and cameras.

“If all else fails, at least they will be able to keep the cheetah in their sight. It is small signs like walking with a limp or slow movements that can be very bad news. Time is of the essence. The tracking teams will have state-of-the-art high definition cameras with extended zoom functions as well,” the DFO said.

Of the 20 cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa that were relocated to Kuno National Park last year, six have died since March.