Even while the first batch of cheetahs brought to India from Namibia and released in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park last September are doing well, one of them, a female Sasha, died here today due to kidney infection. Sasha who was four-and-a-half years old had been showing signs of weakness and fatigue during her daily monitoring and her medical examination revealed that she was not only dehydrated but had problems related to the kidney.

When the results of her blood test were received, it was found that her creatinine levels were very high which suggested an infection in the kidney.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the other seven cheetahs in Sasha’s batch at KNP were healthy.

Last year five female and three male cheetahs had been flown in from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh as part of the ambitious reintroduction programme and released by Prime Narendra Modi on September 17, his birthday. Cheetahs had become extinct in India in 1952 due to loss of habitat and rampant poaching. The last three of these creatures were shot dead by Koriya’s Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo.

Of the eight, two brothers, Elton and Freddie were released into the wild in Madhya Pradesh last week. With this four of the eight have been released into the wild in the park in Sheopur district.

In the beginning, all the eight were kept in the acclimatization enclosures from quarantine bomas (animal enclosures) in November last year. Later they were moved to the hunting enclosures of the park.

This year on February 18, a dozen more cheetahs, seven males and five females, were flown from South Africa to KNP.

Incidentally, the cheetah project is the world’s first intercontinental translocation one aiming to reintroduce the big cats in India.