Cheetah mother, cubs pelted with stones in Madhya Pradesh village

Sheopur/New Delhi: 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 activists.

According 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 India.

"Today, 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 said.

The 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 said.

Videos on social media purported to show the cheetahs near an under-construction railway bridge while several villagers, armed with sticks, stand at a distance.

In one video, a cheetah attempts to hunt a calf but the villagers and the forest team drive it away.

The cheetahs were also spotted in farms in the Telipura village. The forest team advised the villagers to let the animals pass.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Project Cheetah Director Uttam Kumar Sharma urged people not to panic and allow the animals to move freely.

"Instead 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 said.

Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey called the incident a "complete failure" of the authorities implementing the project.

"While 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 said.

"The 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 added.

Wildlife biologist Ravi Chellam described the situation as "nothing new".

"I have been consistently stating about the wide-ranging behaviour of the cheetahs and the small size of Kuno. How currently India just doesn't have the required extent of habitats for a population of wild cheetahs to establish itself and flourish over the long term. Nothing new," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Project Cheetah on September 17, 2022 -- 70 years after cheetahs were declared extinct in India.

Since then, 20 African cheetahs -- eight from Namibia in September 2022 and 12 from South Africa in February 2023 -- have been brought to Kuno National Park.

Eight adult cheetahs -- three females and five males -- have died.

So far, 19 cubs have been born in India, with 14 surviving, bringing the total number of cheetahs in Kuno, including cubs, to 26.

The 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 infection.

The authorities resumed releasing the cheetahs into the wild last December. Currently, 17 cheetahs, including nine cubs, are in the wild.