Multiple cheetah deaths in Kuno raise questions about habitat limits, prey scarcity, and management. A data-driven look at the challenges facing India’s cheetah project T wo back-to-back cheetah deaths—one from a suspected collision inside the forest and another caused by a speeding vehicle—have once again pushed the spotlight onto the ambitious yet troubled cheetah introduction project in Kuno National Park . While officials have issued preliminary statements, the absence of publicly released post-mortem and investigation reports related to the past such cases has deepened concerns about transparency at a time when clarity is essential. The recent incidents highlight the ecological and management challenges that continue to shape the project’s uncertain trajectory. Each Loss Is Significant Setback On December 5, Friday, one of Veera’s cubs recently released into the open forest, died after reportedly separating from its mother. Just two days later, on December 7, another young cheetah...
Tigers continue to ‘vanish’ from Ranthambore national park and the issue is linked with “over population of tigers” in the park, extremely famous for wildlife tourism world over. The big cats in Rajasthan, it seems, ‘enjoy’ cordial relations with the politicians of the desert state, perhaps more because of tourism. While in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, the presence of tiger or a tiger reserve is linked with restrictions and the state government is sitting over many proposals to notify more protected areas , Rajasthan politicians apparently associate it with their achievement. Recent notification of Ramgarh Vishdhari as a tiger reserve in Bundi, the home district of Om Birla, Lok Sabha speaker, is the latest example. Ramgarh was accorded the status of tiger reserve to resolve the issue of disappearance of tigers from Ranthambore . For the first time, the state government admitted that 13 tigers were missing from Ranthambore from Janu...