India Orders Probe After First Cheetah Shooting
India has vowed swift action after a cheetah was shot dead, the first such killing since the country began reintroducing the animals in 2022, the government said on Wednesday. The cheetah shooting claimed a 19-month-old male cub found injured in forests outside Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
The environment ministry said it had ordered a high-level team for an on-ground investigation into the shooting, treating the incident with “utmost gravity”. The India-born cheetah, whose mother was among those introduced to India from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa as part of efforts to restore the planet’s fastest land animal, was shot as it prowled in forests outside a protected national park.
Found injured on October 25
The cub was found injured on the evening of October 25 in the territorial forests of Morena, outside the protected area of Kuno National Park, Indian media reported. A monitoring team found the radio-collared cub ranging near the border between Morena and Sheopur districts.
It was rescued the same night and brought to the veterinary facility at Kuno for initial medical examination. It was then shifted to an intensive veterinary care unit, and emergency surgery was carried out at a veterinary college in Jabalpur. A CT scan showed that foreign bodies had damaged the cheetah’s internal organs, musculoskeletal system and nervous system, Madhya Pradesh’s chief wildlife warden said.
During surgery, five firearm pellets were recovered from its body. Despite the intervention and sustained efforts by the veterinary team, the cheetah could not be saved, and it died early on Tuesday, three days after it was rescued.
Cheetah shooting probe: a three-member team
The Union government has formed a high-level committee for an on-ground investigation into the death. The three-member team comprises the Inspector General of Forests at the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Additional Director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, and the Regional Deputy Director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
The team will closely coordinate with the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and a special task force set up by the state, which includes senior police and forest officials. It will also review the security protocols and monitoring measures in place for the big cats.
“Viewing the matter with utmost gravity, the Centre has deputed a high-level team for an on-ground investigation into the incident, given the critical importance of Project Cheetah and the need to ensure the highest standards of protection for the reintroduced population of the Big Cat,” the Union Environment Ministry said in a statement.
Kuno National Park director Uttam Kumar Sharma declined to comment on how the cheetah had strayed far from the park and why monitoring teams were unable to intervene earlier. “This incident did not take place in my jurisdiction. It would have been our responsibility had the incident taken place at Kuno National Park,” he told The Indian Express.
Why this death matters for Project Cheetah
Asiatic cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952. The critically endangered subspecies, once found across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, now survives in very small numbers in Iran. Their African cousins were first reintroduced in September 2022 to Kuno National Park, 300 kilometres south of New Delhi.
Eight cheetahs were flown in from Namibia in September 2022, followed by another batch of 12 from South Africa that were relocated to Kuno in February 2023. With the cub’s death, India’s cheetah population stands at 58, according to the forest department. Of these, 52 are in Kuno National Park, four are in Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, and two are in Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve, all in Madhya Pradesh.
The shooting is the first reported gunshot casualty since the reintroduction began, and that is why it has drawn a response at the highest level. Earlier cheetah deaths in the project were linked to illness, infighting or other natural causes. A shooting raises different questions: who fired, why a radio-collared animal ranging outside the park was not protected sooner, and whether monitoring and local engagement around the park are strong enough as the population spreads beyond its boundaries.
Those questions will decide whether Project Cheetah is judged as a conservation success with a tragic setback, or as a programme whose protection still stops at the park gate.
