India vows action after first cheetah shot dead

NEW DELHI: India has vowed "swift action" after a cheetah was shot dead, the first such killing since the country began reintroducing the animals in 2022, the government said on Wednesday (Oct 28).

The environment ministry said it had ordered a "high-level team for an on-ground investigation" into the shooting of the 19-month-old male, treating the incident with "utmost gravity".

The India-born cheetah - whose mother was among those introduced to India from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa as part of efforts to restore the planet's fastest land animal - was shot as it prowled in forests outside a protected national park.

Asiatic cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952. The critically endangered subspecies, once found across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, now survives in very small numbers in Iran.

Their African cousins were first reintroduced in September 2022 to India, to the Kuno National Park, 300km south of New Delhi.

The wounded cheetah was picked up on Sunday in forests in Madhya Pradesh state, outside Kuno's boundaries, and taken for veterinary care.

"During the surgery, five firearm pellets were recovered from its body," the environment ministry said.

Despite efforts, the cheetah died on Tuesday.

"Medical examinations corroborated multiple internal injuries associated with the recovered firearm pellets," it added.

The high-profile project, championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been dogged by criticism over the deaths of several of the cats.

But experts in animal reintroductions say they often result in more than 50 per cent mortality, especially in the initial phases.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority, which oversees the cheetah project, said that survival rates and hunting successes are "comparable to other international cheetah reintroduction efforts, with recorded wild prey kills confirming successful adaptation to the Indian landscape".

The total cheetah population in the wild in India is around 60, including some 40 Indian-born cheetahs.