Bhopal: A South African female cheetah that went untraceable in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district was captured on Sunday after a 22-day search operation. Since her radio collar stopped working on July 21.
The cheetah, Nirva, had gone missing since her radio collar stopped working on July 21. She was caught at around 10 am in Dhoret range after which a health check-up was conducted on her, news agency PTI reported officials as saying.
The Chief Wildlife Warden of the Madhya Pradesh forest department issued a release saying that an intense search for the female feline was on for the last 22 days after her radio collar stopped functioning on July 21.
According to the statement, over 100 field staff, including officers, veterinarians, and cheetah trackers were involved in the search for the spotted cat day and night.
Apart from the on-ground team, two drone teams, one dog squad, and available elephants were deployed in the search operation. An area of 15-20 square kilometres was being searched, it said, as per PTI.
Additionally, local villagers were informed about Nirva and any information about the feline from them was checked and verified immediately, the release mentioned.
On August 12, Satellite informed about the cheetah’s location as of August 11 evening.
“A search team was immediately sent to the spot and with the help of a drone team and dog squad, a team of veterinarians was able to finally trace Nirva in the evening, but could not capture her,” it said, as quoted by PTI.
According to the release, Nirva looked healthy and was moving and a decision was taken to restart the operation on Sunday morning as it was getting dark. Drone teams kept track of the cheetah’s location throughout the night.
The search operation began at 4 am again as per her location provided by drone teams. It took nearly six hours before Nirva could be captured, it said, as reported by PTI.
The female South African cheetah is healthy and has been kept inside a boma (enclosure) for a further health check-up, the release informed.
The Chief Wildlife Warden stated that all 15 cheetahs (seven males, seven females and one female cub) at the KNP are now kept in bomas. They are healthy and continuously being monitored on health parameters by Kuno’s team of veterinarians, he revealed, as per PTI.
Eight Namibian cheetahs – five female and three male – were released into enclosures at the KNP on September 17 last year under the Cheetah Reintroduction Project. In February, 12 more cheetahs were brought from South Africa.
In March, four cubs were born to a Namibian cheetah named Jwala, but three of them died in May.
Since then, six of the adult cheetahs have also died due to various reasons, taking the total death count of the big cats, including three cubs, to nine.
