Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh): In yet another major blow to the Cheetah Relocation project, a male South African Cheetah Uday died due to illness at Kuno National Park (Sheopur) on Sunday evening. The reasons for his death are still unknown. Forest officials are waiting for the autopsy report to know the exact reason for his death.
During the routine inspection of big enclosures (boma) at 9 am on Sunday, forest officials of Kuno National Park found that in Boma number 2, male Cheetah Uday was sitting in a lazy manner by keeping his head low. Uday also faltered while walking.
In an official statement, the forest officials said that Uday was found healthy in the routine check conducted a day ago.
Uday was tranquilised for treatment
The officials passed the information regarding the big cat’s situation to the veterinary team. Upon inspection, the team of veterinary doctors found Uday to be sick. The wild life experts and Cheetah Experts of Cheetah Conservation Fund felt the immediate need to tranquilize the ailing cheetah for treatment.
They, at 9.45 am, immediately phoned Chief Conservator of Forest Lion Project Uttam Sharma who passed the information to PCCF (Wild Life) JS Chouhan, seeking the permission to tranquilize Uday.
Death at around 4 pm
It was at 11 am that Uday was tranquilized for treatment on the spot itself. Later, by seeing the health condition, Uday was shifted to the isolation ward and was kept under constant monitoring. It was around 4 pm that Uday died while undergoing treatment.
Namibian cheetah Sasha died due to kidney ailment
Notably, earlier, it was female Namibian cheetah Sasha who died of kidney infection in March this year
Eight Namibian Cheetahs were released at Kuno National Park on the birthday of PM Narendra Modi last year. This year, 12 South African cheetahs were brought. In total, there were 20 cheetahs in Kuno. But with the two deaths, now their number has come down to eighteen.
