Three Cheetahs With Neck Infections Are Healthy, Forest Ministry Says

New Delhi: The three cheetahs which experts said had maggot-infested wounds similar to the two that died recently in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park are healthy, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) said in a press release on Wednesday, July 19.

Two cheetahs – the brothers Gaurav and Shaurya – were brought to the enclosure for a health examination, which showed that they are healthy. They will be kept in the enclosure for more health checks. The third, Pavan, is also healthy now. He had been kept in the enclosure since July 14 for health checks, per the press note.

The health examinations were conducted by the veterinarians present at Kuno and it was coordinated with inputs from the Namibian and South African experts.

Concerns about the well-being of the big cats that have been brought to India as part of Project Cheetah had been growing ever since reports emerged that two of them died due to injuries caused by the radio collar that is used to monitor their movements.

But the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on July 16 insisted that all cheetah deaths were due to “natural causes”. Reports attributing the deaths to other reasons are “speculation and hearsay and not based on any scientific evidence”, it claimed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have conducted a high-level meeting on the progress of Project Cheetah on Wednesday. No details have emerged about that meeting yet.