An exercise to remove radio collars from 10 free ranging cheetahs at Kuno National Park is among measures suggested by wildlife officials in Madhya Pradesh following the death of two cheetahs in three days. Two South African cheetah experts, including one travelling to India this week to aid officials at Kuno, also told The Indian Express that radio collars could be causing problems. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), on the other hand, said on Sunday that reports of cheetah deaths due to radio collars were not based on scientific evidence, and that “all mortalities are due to natural causes”. Madhya Pradesh principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) J S Chauhan told The Indian Express: “We have a meeting on this issue tomorrow. An infection breaking out because of the radio collar due to the monsoon is a possibility. In these cases, because of high moisture, the cheetah may scratch its skin, which can break and an infection can break out after contact with a fly. It may also be one of the reasons for the cheetah deaths. We need a thorough examination to see if there are other causes. Both the cheetahs have similar organ damage — their kidneys, heart, spleen and kidneys were damaged. The radio collar is not the fatal issue, it can be a contributing factor and it must be addressed.” Wildlife authorities are expected to carry out the exercise after it was noted that the male coalition of the cheetah brothers from Namibia, Gaurav and Shaurya, also referred to as “The Rock Stars”, have started showing a “similar problem”. “We suspect that these two male cheetahs may have a similar problem. That is what was seen during our monitoring. We are going to remove their radio collars… that is what common sense would say. It would take a lot of time to remove the collars of all 10-odd wild ranging cheetahs. There are also 5 cheetahs inside the enclosure. We can't say how much time it would take to remove the collars of the free-ranging cheetahs, but we should ideally remove their collars and monitor them all. We are going to rigorously monitor this issue." However, MoEF&CC, in a press release on Sunday, said reports of deaths caused due to radio collars were speculation and not based on scientific evidence. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the apex body entrusted with the implementation of Project Cheetah, which comes under the ministry, in this release said that "all mortalities are due to natural causes”. "There are reports in the media attributing these cheetah deaths to other reasons including their radio collars, etc. Such reports are not based on any scientific evidence but are speculation and hearsay," the release stated. Of the 20 translocated cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia, five mortalities of adult individuals have been reported from Kuno National Park till date, the ministry stated. The ministry has also had consultation with international cheetah experts and veterinary doctors from South Africa and Namibia. It stated that the "existing monitoring protocols, protection status, managerial inputs, veterinary facilities, training and capacity building aspects are being reviewed by independent national experts”. The ministry stated that "creation of a second home for cheetahs in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh have been envisaged", apart from other steps like "bringing additional forest area under administrative control of Kuno National Park for landscape level management”. On July 14, The Indian Express reported that wildlife authorities were looking at the possibility of an infection breaking out due to the radio collars under wet weather conditions. South African cheetah expert Adrian Tordiffe, who was involved in the translocation of the cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa, had at the time claimed to have looked at the video of the two dead cheetahs and made the suggestion that collars may be an issue. After the ministry statement, Adrian said, "I stand by what I said. The ministry has not come up with an alternate diagnosis. It is a combination of wet weather and collars which is causing this problem. That doesn't mean I am saying that the collars alone are a problem. Most of the cheetahs were collared in Africa, but you don't have concentrated rainfall in a short period of time like in India. It is simply an unforeseen problem that now we have to address. It is frightening to know that they are disputing this. If you put your head in the sand, then you are going to lose more animals. What we need is appropriate action. We need to examine all the cheetahs to check whether they have the same issue." Adrian said the cheetahs in Africa were mostly used to dry weather conditions and were experiencing an Indian monsoon for the first time, causing unforeseen problems. "You must also take in stock that cheetahs are also different when it comes to resilience and susceptibility. They are not able to groom themselves as well as other animals and are not as resilient." Mike Toft, a cheetah expert from South Africa, will be flying down to India on Tuesday and is expected to help the Kuno officials to deal with the situation. An expert in radio collars, Toft was also involved in the translocation project and has looked after some of the cheetahs at his enclosure. "In East Africa, we have similar monsoon conditions as well and face difficulty with radio collars. I have seen cases of infections breaking out in collared cheetahs, lions and dogs. There are multiple factors like the fit of the collar, long periods of a wet environment, which can cause chafing and discomfort. During the wet weather, the skin becomes thin and once it breaks, there is a risk of flies infecting the injured part, resulting in a maggot infestation. These collars are relatively large satellite tracking collars and we need to check if the collars are a contributing factor to the infection. We need to remove the collars for the monsoon and keep the cheetahs under monitoring," Toft said. Toft also indicated the challenges in tracking cheetahs without the presence of radio collars – he said that the collars are a "necessary evil" that have to be used to monitor the animals during a translocation and have to be kept on for at least a period of six months. "We did not think of this when we were translocating the cheetahs. In Mozambique, we have wet weather conditions, but not a lot of cheetahs are collared. In this project, a large number of cheetahs are collared. It is an unforeseen problem," he said. On July 14, male cheetah Suraj was spotted "in a lethargic state" with flies around its neck by the monitoring team, hours before it died at Palpur East Zone. On July 11, male cheetah Tejas was found dead with neck injuries inside enclosure number 6. Its post mortem report had revealed that it was “internally weak” and could not recover from a “traumatic shock”.
