Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh takes a dig at the union and alleges that the statement issued by the NTCA was politically intended. This statement by Jairam Ramesh came right after the National Tiger Conservation Authority vindicated the death of Cheetahs in Kuno National Park by affirming it as a natural cause. ’ NTCA’s report regarding the deaths of cheetahs said Preliminary analysis of cheetah mortalities leads to a natural cause.
20 cheetahs have been brought in different batches to India since September 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released these cheetahs into Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Among these, eight cheetahs have been reported dead. The death of the Namibian Cheetah named ‘Suraj’ which was considerably the 8th cheetah to die, questions the pragmatism of the project.
Soon after the death of Suraj, the National Tiger Conservative Authority released a statement stating that the reports in the media of cheetahs dying due to indistinct reasons, their ratio collar, etc. are false. Such reports are not based on scientific proof but on conjectures and speculations.
While reverting to this, the congress general secretary remarked, “Unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister mediated and made the NTCA issue this statement confirming the death of cheetahs because of Natural causes.”
Jairam added, “This statement from NTCA is clearly a political one. Envisioned to whitewash management failures, this mocks conversation science.”
Jairam Ramesh said this clearly exposes NTCA.
Experts had varied observations on this matter. According to many experts, the cheetahs died because of an infection caused by radio collars, whereas some refuted this by saying collars have been used in Indian wildlife conservation for the past two decades. So, death by radio collar is infrequent and unusual. On the other hand, some experts believe that conclusions can only be drawn after a post-mortem report.