PMO India / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). Cropped.
Madhya Pradesh's forest department is finalising a security plan for the wider cheetah landscape around Kuno National Park, after two incidents within ten days showed how exposed the animals and their trackers are once they leave the park.
On October 24, KNG-22, a 19-month-old male born at Kuno to the cheetah Nirva, was shot near Nitanwas village in Sheopur district, about 50 km from the park. Five pellets were recovered and he died in Jabalpur on October 27, the first cheetah shot since Project Cheetah began in 2022. A special task force arrested two brothers from Morena, said they had gone hunting with a licensed muzzle-loading gun and found no link to wildlife trade. Six forest personnel have been suspended, The Times of India reported.
Days later, in Rajasthan's Karauli district, villagers allegedly assaulted and detained a three-member Kuno tracking team after the cheetah KGP-3 killed a buffalo calf. Forester Alok Prajapati told police an elderly man demanded compensation before others joined in. Some officials link such hostility to slow payment for livestock killed by wildlife, the paper reported, and Prajapati has sought police protection for night patrols.
The plan, now in its final stage, proposes temporary check posts in territorial forests, more patrolling and closer coordination between forest, police and district officials, Free Press Journal reported. Officials expect cheetahs breeding at Kuno to keep moving out to claim territory, and more will be released into the wild.
As reported, the plan does not say how compensation for cattle killed by cheetahs will be paid faster, the grievance behind the Karauli confrontation.
Hashtags: #Environment #Wildlife #ProjectCheetah #MadhyaPradesh #KunoNationalPark #KNG22 #Karauli #CheetahLandscape #KunoCheetahSecurityPlan #EnvironmentAgriculture
