Following the deaths of two cheetahs in just three days, the authorities at the Kuno National Park have decided to remove the radio collars from the 10 free-ranging cheetahs that were brought from South Africa and Namibia.The move has been taken by the officials after the death of two cheetahs in a period of just three days. The two South African experts, including one who is travelling to India this week, said that radio collars could be causing problems.कूनो में चीता तेजस की मृत्यु का संभावित कारण ट्रॉमेटिक शॉक—मुख्य वन संरक्षक वन्यप्राणी श्री जे.एस. चौहान ने बताया कि कूनो राष्ट्रीय उद्यान में दक्षिण अफ्रीका से लाये गये नर चीता तेजस की मृत्यु का प्रथम दृष्टया संभावित कारण ट्रॉमेटिक शॉक है।RM: https://t.co/qu4gljl6m8— Department of Forest, MP (@minforestmp) July 12, 2023However, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), has bypassed the reports of deaths of cheetahs due to radio collars as there were no scientific pieces of evidence for the same, quoting it, “all mortalities are due to natural causes”.#PressRelease on Project #Cheetah / July 16. Implementation Project cheetah is yet to complete a year & it will be premature to conclude the outcome in terms of success and failure since cheetah introduction is a longterm project. pic.twitter.com/wn84YPHb3D— National Tiger Conservation Authority (@ntca_india) July 16, 2023Report submitted by NTCA says:“The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the apex body entrusted with the implementation of Project Cheetah, which comes under the ministry, in this release said that all mortalities are due to natural causes,” said the report.“There are reports in the media attributing these cheetah deaths to other reasons including their radio collars, etc. Such reports are not based on any scientific evidence but are speculation and hearsay,” the release stated.Apart from this the release also says, “Government of India has deployed dedicated National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) team of officials to work in close coordination with the field officials. this team is engaged for analysing real time field data collated by the field monitoring teams for deciding upon various management aspects including health and related interventions required to be in place for better management.”
