A female cheetah translocated from Namibia dies in India's Kuno: What went wrong?

A cheetah has perished just a few months after being introduced to India’s Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Forest officials said that the female cheetah named Sasha, who was four and a half years old, died as a result of kidney issues. She was one among eight animals that were relocated from Namibia in September of the previous year. The feline had reportedly not been doing well prior to being transported to India, according to officials. Also read: Two friends, two siblings and more: Who are the eight cheetahs coming to India from Namibia? Sasha was suffering from a kidney ailment Sasha was a captive-bred cheetah. According to Hindustan Times, in the third week of January, she contracted a renal infection, which is common among animals, and was undergoing treatment at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur, officials of the state forest department said. Susan Yannetti, spokesperson of Cheetah Conservation Fund, the Namibia-based wildlife NGO that is part of the project to relocate cheetahs in India, “Sasha died at around 8 am on Monday. At this point, renal failure is suspected.” The Madhya Pradesh forest department, in a statement on Monday, claimed Sasha was suffering from a kidney disease before her translocation. However, Laurie Marker, the CCF’s convener, disagreed with the claim. Sasha’s creatinine level was above 400 (an indicative of impaired kidney function) which resulted in her death. According to Livemint, several reports suggested that she was in quarantine and was offered buffalo meat owing to frailty. The cheetah was “about to shift into a soft predator-free enclosure,” officials had stated a month earlier. As per the statement, officials first found out about her ill health on 22 January, when she was evidently “lethargic." It added that Sasha was examined by three veterinarians, who found that she needed treatment and was brought to the quarantine enclosure on the same day. Blood tests at Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal confirmed she had a kidney infection, the statement said. “For the past two months, Sasha was treated by all wildlife doctors posted in Kuno, Namibian expert Dr Ilai Walker and South African expert Dr Adrian Tordif. On 18 February, veterinary expert Dr Laurie Marker came to Kuno with 12 cheetahs brought from South Africa and checked on her health. South African experts appreciated that despite such a serious illness, Sasha was relatively healthy due to proper care and treatment,” the statement said. According to India Today, Sasha was released at Kuno on 17 September last year as part of India’s cheetah reintroduction programme. During the initial days, all the big cats were kept in quarantine under observation before being released into larger hunting enclosures in November. Since then, the cheetahs have hunted independently and shown signs of adjusting to their new environment. Also read: 12 cheetahs begin their journey from South Africa, to reach India tomorrow Eight cheetahs brought to India Eight cheetahs had been transported to Madhya Pradesh and released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2022, seven decades after they had gone extinct in India. Meanwhile, as part of the ambitious plan to restore the gorgeous species into Indian woods, 12 cheetahs arrived from South Africa early this year, reported Livemint. The number of Namibian cheetahs released into the wild in Kuno National Park increased to two last week, making a total of four. Three female cheetahs still survive in hunting enclosures. The group of eight comprised five females and three males. In 1947, the last cheetah in India perished in the Koriya district of modern-day Chhattisgarh, and in 1952 the species was officially deemed extinct. To reintroduce them in India, the former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh launched “Project Cheetah” in 2009. As part of its efforts to renew and diversify the nation’s wildlife and habitat, the central government gave the initiative fresh life last year. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News,  India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.