4 cubs born to Namibian cheetah at Kuno Park, not 3: Union minister Bhupender Yadav

Bhopal, Jan 24 (PTI) Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday said Namibian cheetah Jwala has given birth to four cubs at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, and not three as earlier announced.

Yadav on Tuesday in a post on X said the cheetah has given birth to three cubs.

The minister in a post on Wednesday said, "Wildlife wonders! As frontline wildlife warriors managed to get closer to Jwala, they found she has given birth to four, not three, cubs. This has increased our joy several times over. Congratulations all." "We pray the cubs thrive and prosper at their home in India," he said.

According to officials, the cubs were born to Jwala on January 20.

This is the second litter of Jwala, after a gap of 10 months.

Jwala (Namibian name Siyaya) had also given birth to four cubs in March last year. However, only one of them survived.

On January 3, Yadav shared the information about the birth of three cubs to the Namibian cheetah Aasha.

With this, the number of cubs in the KNP has increased to eight now, with seven of them born this month alone.

This has been a mixed month for India's cheetah project as it saw the birth of six cubs and the death of a Namibian cheetah, Shaurya, at the KNP on January 16.

Since March 2023, seven adult cheetahs, including Shaurya, have died in the park due to various reasons. This has taken the total fatality count of felines, including three cubs, to 10 at the KNP.

The seven adult cheetahs - three females and four males - who died at the park were Sasha, Uday, Daksha, Tejas, Suraj, Dhatri and Shaurya. While the first six fatalities occurred in a period of six months - from March to August last year, Shaurya died last week.

One of the four cubs born to translocated Namibian cheetah Jwala died on May 23, 2023, and two others two days later.

The total number of cheetahs at the KNP currently stands at 21 (six males, seven females and eight cubs).

Jwala and Aasha are among the cheetahs translocated to India from Namibia under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Project Cheetah, aimed at re-introducing the only large carnivore species that went extinct in independent India.

The first batch of eight cheetahs was introduced in India in September 2022.

The second batch of 12 cheetahs was flown in from South Africa last February. PTI