A 20-month-old female cheetah born in India to Namibian cheetah Jwala was found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park on Monday evening, the Deccan Chronicle reported.

Forest officials believe the sub-adult cheetah died following a fight with a leopard, in what could be the first recorded case of its kind since the launch of Project Cheetah, The Indian Express reported.

The young cheetah had been released into the wild with her mother and three siblings on February 21. She had separated from her mother more than a month ago and from her siblings just days before her death, Project Cheetah Field Director Uttam Sharma said in a statement.

Forest staff found the carcass at about 6.30 pm on Monday, Sharma said.

The exact cause of death will be confirmed by a post-mortem, he added.

Officials said that the remaining cheetahs at the national park, including the dead animal’s siblings, are healthy and being closely monitored.

Experts had warned that leopard encounters posed a significant threat to the success of Project Cheetah, which brought 20 African cheetahs to India from Namibia and South Africa, The Wire reported.

The late Vincent van der Merwe, an African wildlife expert, had in 2023 highlighted Kuno’s high leopard density. “The worst mortalities are still to come,” he had warned.

Madhya Pradesh has the highest leopard population in India, with 3,907 in the wild, according to the Union environment ministry’s estimate in 2024.

Following the death on Monday, Kuno’s cheetah population stands at 25. While the nine adults were imported from Africa, the 16 cubs were born in India.

Since 2023, at least 15 cheetahs have died.

In September 2022, cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.

The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.

Also read: The dark clouds over India’s cheetah project

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