Madhya Pradesh: Missing South African female cheetah captured after 22 days

A South African female cheetah, which had become untraceable in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park in Sheopur district after her radio collar stopped functioning on July 21, was successfully captured on Sunday following a 22-day search operation, according to officials. The cheetah named Nirva was captured around 10 am in the Dhoret range of Kuno National Park (KNP), after which she underwent a health check-up, said officials.

An intensive search had been underway for the female cheetah for the past 22 days since her radio collar stopped functioning on July 21, according to a statement released by the Chief Wildlife Warden of the Madhya Pradesh forest department. More than 100 field staff, including officers, veterinarians and cheetah trackers were searching for the spotted cat day and night, it said. In addition to the ground team, two drone teams, a dog squad, and elephants were mobilized for the search operation. The effort encompassed an area spanning 15-20 square kilometers, as stated in the release.

Nirva is healthy 

On August 12, information about the cheetah's location was received from the satellite. It gave information about her location on 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.

Nirva appeared to be in good health and was observed to be mobile. The decision was made to resume the operation on Sunday morning as it was getting dark. The drone teams were assigned the responsibility of monitoring Nirva's whereabouts throughout the night. The search operation started again at 4 am on Sunday as per her location provided by drone teams. It took nearly six hours before Nirva could be captured, it said.

Nirva is healthy and has been kept inside a boma (enclosure) for a further health check-up, the release added.

15 cheetahs kept in bomas

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, it said.

Under the Cheetah Reintroduction Project, eight Namibian cheetahs - five female and three male - were released into enclosures at the KNP on September 17 last year. In February, 12 more cheetahs arrived at KNP from South Africa. In March this year, four cubs were born to a Namibian cheetah named Jwala, but three of them died in May. Since March, six of the adult cheetahs have died due to various reasons, taking the total death count of felines, including three cubs, to nine.

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(With PTI inputs)