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Showing posts from February, 2023

Namibian Cheetah Sasha Dies In Kuno National Park

Sasha, one of the 8 cheetahs translocated from Namibia in September last year and released in Kuno national park , died on March 27. After almost two months’ of illness, the five year old female cheetah died in the morning.  Addditional chief secretary forest department JS Kansotia confirmed this.  Sasha was diagnosed with hepatorenal, a kidney and liver-related infection, in the last week of January, four months after she was brought to Kuno in September 2022.  Sasha was  brought up in captivity in Namibia after she was picked up in malnourished  condition in a farm field there . Knowing her health conditions, Indian officials had even objected to her translocation as they apprehended that she might not last in the wild. Renal Complications  On January 23 , the female cheetah  had showed signs of fatigue and weakness, after which she was tranquilised and shifted to the quarantine enclosure for treatment. “Two days after medicines had been injected intravenously, the cheetah was showin

How would Cheetahs in Kuno Meet and Mate ?

Female cheetah and cubs.Even this picture  released by India's Press Information Bureaue says something. Eversince cheetah introduction in Kuno national park , officials are  dreaming for this day. But a section of these officials  also believe that  these cats continue to live under stress  and there is an uncertainty over breeding. They need to meet and mate. But how ? Will they be able to do so  as they are going to follow another  months of  stress when they are released in open. Now that the Namibian cheetahs are ready  for release in the open forest from the closed confines of the  present 5 square km fenced housing, many in the cheetah monitoring team are concerned over the future of their reproduction- an important land mark in cheetah conservation and the ultimate aim of the introduction of the foreign species of the cat in India. From Namibia to India , to small  enclosure  in Kuno to the five sq km boma, they will  again be under stress  when released in the open jungle

Teeming With Tigers, India Needs To Manage Their Population

India is facing a serious 'problem of plenty'. Rising tiger population in many parts of the country is creating conflict zones. And the tiger- human clashes are going up, alarmingly in many landscapes. The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) needs to take initiatives to control the situation. Fifty years after the project tiger as India moves on from dwindling tiger population to surplus numbers of the big cats,  the nation needs an active tiger population management plan. As MoEFC&C yet to  become proactive, a team of  tiger catchers continue to carry out search operations for the past over five months to  capture a tigress with four cubs. Thge team members are  scanning Tadoba Andhari Tiger Landscape in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, grappling with the issue of over population of 200 tigers. As many as 53 people lost their lives in Chandrapur in 2022 in tiger attacks while 14 tigers have also died from January 2022 to January this year. This