MP's Kuno National Park gets one more Cheetah taking the total count to 7

A female cheetah from South Africa named Neerva, who is 3–4 years old, was released into the wild on Sunday night from a larger enclosure at the Kuno National Park.

Sheopur: An official said on Monday that one more cheetah had been released into the wild at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur region of Madhya Pradesh, bringing the total to seven.

A female cheetah from South Africa named Neerva, who is 3–4 years old, was released into the wild on Sunday night from a larger enclosure at the KNP, according to Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Prakash Kumar Verma.

Ten cheetahs continue to be kept in larger enclosures, while seven have already been released into the wild.

The steering committee that the Centre has established will decide whether to release the remaining cheetahs into the wild. The official said that the committee members would be visiting the KNP on Tuesday.

On September 17 of last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received eight Namibian cheetahs, five of which were female and three of which were male, to the KNP and released them into designated enclosures as a part of a comprehensive programme for the species' rehabilitation.

Later, 12 cheetahs  seven males and five females  were brought to the national park from South Africa on February 18 this year.

Cheetah Jwala, earlier known as Siyaya, who was translocated from Namibia, gave birth to four cubs at the KNP in March this year. Three of the cubs died earlier this month.

These cubs were the first to be born in the wild on Indian soil after the last cheetah was hunted in Korea district of present-day Chhattisgarh in 1947.

Apart from these cheetah cubs, three of the 20 adult cheetahs  Daksha, Sasha and Uday  translocated from South Africa and Namibia have died at the KNP.

Namibian cheetah Sasha died due to a kidney-related ailment on March 27, Uday brought in from South Africa died on April 13, while South African cheetah Daksha succumbed to the injuries following a violent interaction with a male during a mating attempt on May 9.

(With inputs from PTI)