Cheetah, cubs pelted with stones in Madhya Pradesh village

A female cheetah and her four cubs were pelted with stones on Monday as they tried to hunt a calf on the outskirts of a village in Madhya Pradesh raising concerns over the implementation of Project Cheetah among conservationists and wildlife activistsAccording to official sources the incident occurred around 9 am near a village in Sheopur district where cheetahs from Africa were introduced under the project to establish a meta population in IndiaToday around 9 am Jwala and her four cubs tried to hunt a cattle calf on the outskirts of Behardha village near farmlands Seeing this some villagers gathered and created a commotion to save the calf One or two people also threw stones an official source saidThe monitoring team present tried to prevent any further incident Due to the disturbance the cheetahs retreated into the forest where they are being tracked All five cheetahs are healthy and safe the source saidVideos on social media purported to show the cheetahs near an underconstruction railway bridge while several villagers armed with sticks stand at a distanceIn one video a cheetah attempts to hunt a calf but the villagers and the forest team drive it awayThe cheetahs were also spotted in farms in the Telipura village The forest team advised the villagers to let the animals passAdditional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Project Cheetah Director Uttam Kumar Sharma urged people not to panic and allow the animals to move freelyInstead of surrounding the cheetahs or standing with sticks villagers should watch them and allow them to pass If a big cat kills cattle the owner will be compensated he saidBhopalbased wildlife activist Ajay Dubey called the incident a complete failure of the authorities implementing the projectWhile the state government and its wildlife department claim to have SOPs standard operating procedures and monitoring teams in place this video is a reality check he saidThe authorities created Cheetah Mitras to assure people that these animals do not harm humans and that compensation is available for livestock losses This incident shows they have failed to create awareness Dubey addedWildlife biologist Ravi Chellam described the situation as nothing newI have been consistently stating about the wideranging behaviour of the cheetahs and the small size of Kuno How currently India just doesnt have the required extent of habitats for a population of wild cheetahs to establish itself and flourish over the long term Nothing new he saidPrime Minister Narendra Modi launched Project Cheetah on September 17 2022 70 years after cheetahs were declared extinct in IndiaSince then 20 African cheetahs eight from Namibia in September 2022 and 12 from South Africa in February 2023 have been brought to Kuno National ParkEight adult cheetahs three females and five males have diedSo far 19 cubs have been born in India with 14 surviving bringing the total number of cheetahs in Kuno including cubs to 26The cheetahs were initially released into the wild but were brought back to enclosures by August 2023 after three of them died of septicemia a bacterial infectionThe authorities resumed releasing the cheetahs into the wild last December Currently 17 cheetahs including nine cubs are in the wildThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever