Cheetah Deaths in India Mar Reintroduction Efforts

For centuries, cheetahs roamed vast swaths of India and prowled among lions, tigers and leopards. They were declared extinct in 1952 after decades of hunting by princely rulers and British colonizers, shrinking habitats and vanishing prey.

Last year, the Indian government sought to bring cheetahs back by reintroducing the species to the country, bringing 20 in from South Africa and Namibia.

Those efforts suffered another setback this month after the death of a third cheetah in 45 days at Kuno National Park, a wildlife sanctuary in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In the latest case, a female cheetah was killed during a violent interaction with two older males after they were put in the same enclosure for the purpose of mating.

Another male cheetah brought from South Africa in February died of apparent heart failure last month. And a female from the Namibia group, consisting of five males and three females, died of a suspected kidney ailment in March.

The three deaths prompted justices on India’s top court to implore the federal government to consider finding an alternative place for the newly resettled cheetahs.

“Kuno is not sufficient to accommodate,” said the Supreme Court bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sanjay Karol in New Delhi on Thursday. They were referring to the wildlife sanctuary, where the authorities have kept the cheetahs since their relocation.