The death of a six-year-old African cheetah named Uday due to heart failure on Sunday evening at an enclosure in Kuno National Park has sent officials on their toes over the Project Cheetah, inaugurated last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Initially, cheetah Uday's sudden death was suspected to be due to an injury, and his body was sent for a post-mortem examination. However, it was later determined that he had died from cardiac arrest.
The post-mortem examination was conducted by a team of three veterinarians, including two from the KNP and one from Bhopal. Uday had been highly stressed for the last couple of days and was seen struggling to walk in CCTV footage before collapsing.
Despite claims that he was healthy when brought to India from Namibia in February, experts believe that cheetahs often suffer from chronic stress after months in captivity and lose fitness.
This is the second death of a cheetah in a month, following the death of female Namibian cheetah Sasha on March 27. Officials associated with Project Cheetah are now intensively monitoring the remaining African cheetahs at KNP.
Uday was one of 12 cheetahs relocated from South Africa on February 18, while eight cheetahs were translocated from Namibia on September 17 last year.
Sources also said the back to back death of two cheetahs have brought the officials associated with project on their toes and an intense monitoring is being done of other African cheetahs at KNP.
In the morning, a team of wildlife experts went out to monitor the cheetahs that called Boma No 2 their home. As they made their rounds, their eyes were drawn to a disturbing sight -- Uday was sitting in a state of torpor, its head bowed low in exhaustion.
