A shocking case in Madhya Pradesh exposes negligence, illegal cremation, and absconding forest staff - raising doubts over tiger conservation efforts. Madhya Pradesh which never misses a chance to flaunt its title as the “Tiger State of India,” now finds itself under a cloud of suspicion and criticism. A recent incident in the Sonewani Conservation Reserve of Balaghat has revealed not only negligence but what appears to be a deliberate cover-up by the very people entrusted with safeguarding the state’s most iconic species. In July, a tiger was found dead in the reserve,but instead of following mandatory procedures, it was allegedly burnt without informing senior forest officers. The matter only came to light when photographs of the cremation surfaced in a WhatsApp group on August 2 2025. By then, critical evidence was already destroyed. Also read : Ken Betwa Project : Plan to Massacre Millions of Trees Give Goosebumps The revelation triggered outrage,leading to ...
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 showing signs of improvement,” state chief wildlife warden JS Chauhan had said , adding that the treatment would continue for a few more days. Chauhan had said prima facie the illness seemed to be a result of kidney infection. The creatinine levels were reported higher than normal and the animal showed signs of dehydration too. Reacting on her death on Monday, a senior official of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFC&C) involved in the cheetah translocation project, said, "After she was detected with renal complications, she was recovering". But for the past few days she was not keeping well, he said. She died on March 27 forenoon, sources said.
After day-long speculation on her death, the state forest department confirmed her death in the late evening. As part of the medical response after her illness in January , the MP forest department had two veterinarians stationed at Kuno. One of them is the dedicated doctor for Kuno while the dedicated veterinarian for the neighbouring Madhav National Park in Shivpuri was stationed there. Besides, a veterinarian from the Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun was also rushed to Kuno. A veterinarian from Bhopal’s Vanvihar National Park was also sent to assist the team of veterinarians in Kuno. Cheetah management expert Eli Walker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) was also in Kuno. To save Sasha, the medical team was also seeking advice from Andrian Tordiffe, a renowned cheetah veterinarian from South Africa.
Sasha Was Weak, Bred In Captivity
Ace Indian wildlife scientist YV Jhala whose services were cut short abruptly recently had revealed, after he was relieved from the post of dean Wildlife Institute of India, about the poor health conditions of three of the eight cheetahs brought from Namibia. After a delay, two of them were released in the open jungle of Kuno on March 11. This was followed by the release of two more. “The remaining three , including Sasha, have been found unfit for the wild and are required to hone their skills to survive in the wild and will have to wait” , officials had explained after the release of the two males on March 11. Jhala, who led the team of Indian officials that visited Namibia ahead of the translocation, had written to the environment ministry in August 2022 advising that the three cheetahs should not be translocated.
After Jhala was relieved from the WII, he revealed that he had written an email over the issue to the MoEFC&C. Earlier this month, Jhala told Hindustan Times, “I sent a confidential mail to three environment ministry officers that cheetahs can’t hunt, ... .(but the), three cheetahs were translocated”. After the death of Sasha, Siyaya and Savannah- the two weak cats - are still in a small boma or enclosure and the MoEFC&C officials are concerned over their chances of survival in the wild. One healthy female cheetah is still not released and continues to be in captivity. After the first cheetah causality, there are 19 cheetahs at the Kuno National Park in Sheopur, including 12 more brought from South Africa last month. The South African cheetahs are still in quarantine
By Deshdeep Saxena
Representational Images. Banner Imager File Pic of Sasha
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