Successful Rearing of Abandoned Cheetah Cub in Kuno National Park Poses New Challenge
Bhopal: After successfully rearing a three-month-old cheetah cub, abandoned by her mother in a critical condition in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, forest officers in KNP now face a new challenge to rewild the infant feline.
The cub has been deprived of inculcating wild character from her mother since she has been reared by human beings after being rejected by her when the infant cheetah was barely three months old.
The successful rearing of the cub by vets in KNP has been billed as a milestone in India’s maiden cheetah reintroduction project implemented two years ago.
Now ten-month-old, the cub needs to restore the natural instincts of a wild animal to be fit to be released into the wild.
“We will start rewilding of the cheetah cub”, KNP field director Uttam Sharma told this newspaper on Thursday.
A senior forest officer here said that the cheetah would be initiated into the process of rewilding after she completes one year in March this year in consultations with the experts of South Africa and Namibia.
“The whole system of rewilding the cheetah cub needs to be put in place first in KNP. There is no such facility in India now. There is a rewilding centre for tigers in Gorela in Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) in Madhya Pradesh now.
A facility for rewilding of cheetahs, which will be first of its kind in India, has to be developed in KNP to help the cheetah cub retain her hunting skills and other natural instincts to make her fit to live in the wild”, the forest officer said.
Member of Madhya Pradesh wildlife board Khageswar Nayak, who pioneered rewilding of tigers by successfully rearing three orphaned tiger cubs in Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and then rewilding them, the first of its kind experiment in the world, in the early 2000, holds the view that a similar facility can also be developed for re-wilding of the cheetah cub in KNP.
Behaviours of cheetahs need to be studied before initiating the process of rewilding them, Mr Nayak who retired as chief conservator of forest of Madhya Pradesh in 2011, said.
The cheetah cub along with her three siblings was spotted with their mother, Jwala, in KNP on May 23 last year. They were found suffering from severe heat stroke and acute malnutrition, leading to the death of three cubs.
The fourth cub was rescued and then reared under the care of vets in KNP.
“The cub of Jwala is doing fine now”, Mr Sharma said.
Three cubs were born to another Namibian cheetah Aasha in KNP early this month.
Eight cheetahs from Namibia and 12 cheetahs from South Africa were earlier brought to KNP under the cheetah reintroduction project in India.
Six of them have died due to various reasons.
