A female cheetah at Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh has welcomed three new cubs, as confirmed by Central Minister of Environment Bhupendra Yadav’s announcement on social media. The cheetah, named Jwala, gave birth to the cubs shortly after another Namibian cheetah, Aasha, had given birth to 3 cubs.
Earlier, on 27th March 2023, Jwala gave birth to 4 cubs, 3 of which died while the one left is fit and health. This marks the presence of 20 cheetahs in Kuno National Park: 6 male cheetahs, 7 female cheetahs, and 7 cubs.
However, this joyous news follows the recent loss of Namibian cheetah Shaurya at the park on January 16, marking the 10th fatality since the reintroduction of African big cats to India in 2022. The cause of Shaurya’s death remains unclear pending a postmortem examination. The male cheetah was observed having difficulty walking, leading to attempts to revive him after tranquilization proved unsuccessful.
The positive development of Jwala giving birth to three cubs adds to the conservation efforts at Kuno National Park. This news follows a similar event on January 3 when Aasha gave birth to three cubs. Both Jwala and Aasha are part of the cheetah translocation project from Namibia, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Project Cheetah.’ The project aims to reintroduce the cheetah, India’s extinct large carnivore species, and saw the introduction of the first batch of eight cheetahs on 17th September 2022, as informed by DFO R Thikural.