India loses third African cheetah as female dies after fight

Twenty cats were released in national park in project to reintroduce them after 70 years

A sedated cheetah is inspected before in South Africa before its flight to India in February. Reuters

India has lost its third cheetah after a female was fatally injured in a fight after it was enclosed with two males in a breeding attempt.

Daksha was among the 12 animals that were flown from Gauteng in South Africa in February as part of Project Cheetah, a plan to reintroduce the animals to India 70 years after they became extinct there.

The two year-old was found with severe injuries by forest officials at Kuno National Park in central Madhya Pradesh state on Tuesday. She was treated by vets but died, the forest department said.

She had been released in an enclosure with two male cats — Vayu and Agni — in a breeding attempt. The encounter probably turned violent, experts said.

“After a team of experts from India and South Africa visited the park on April 30 and decided to allow mating, a decision was taken for leaving Daksha in an enclosure with the male cats for mating on May 6,” the forest department said.

“Violent behaviour with female cheetahs is common during mating.”

India imported 20 cheetahs from Africa, including eight from Namibia, in September last year as part of the project.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first batch in the national park, but since the reintroduction, India has lost three cheetahs in three months.

Many wildlife conservationists have criticised the project, saying that cheetahs are vulnerable animals and that the project is unsustainable and aims only to increase tourist revenue.

India is thought to have had more than 10,000 cheetahs during the reign of the 16th-century Mughal emperor Akbar, with about 10 per cent as hunting stock for the court.

But their population collapsed by the 1900s because of hunting by British colonisers and local rulers.

The last three cheetahs were hunted in 1948 by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, a king in Central India’s Koriya region in 1948.

In 1952, the Indian government declared the big cats extinct.

In March, four cheetah cubs were born to one of the cats translocated from Namibia, more than 70 years after the animals became locally extinct.