Cheetah KNG22 dies of pellet wounds outside Kuno

A 19-month-old male cheetah of Kuno strayed outside the national park and died of firearm pellet injuries; the Centre has sent an NTCA-WCCB team to investigate and to review protection protocols - a test of how cheetahs are protected once they leave the park.

What happened

• The Centre deputed a high-level team to investigate the death of KNG22, a 19-month-old male cheetah of Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, and offspring of the cheetah Nirva, from firearm pellet injuries.
• It was found injured on 25 October 2026 in the territorial forests of Morena, outside Kuno's protected area, and rescued the same day from the Sheopur Territorial Forest Division.
• Emergency surgery at the veterinary facility in Jabalpur recovered five firearm pellets; the cheetah died on 27 October, and medical examinations confirmed multiple internal injuries linked to the pellets.
• The team: the Inspector General of Forests, NTCA, the Additional Director, WCCB and the Regional Deputy Director, WCCB; Madhya Pradesh had already formed a Special Task Force of Forest and Police officers, with which the team will work.
• Besides the investigation, the team will examine security protocols, monitoring and protection measures, and report to the MoEFCC, which will issue further directions to the State and field authorities.

For Prelims

• Project Cheetah: India's reintroduction began on 17 September 2022 with eight cheetahs from Namibia released in Kuno, followed by twelve from South Africa in February 2023 and nine from Botswana on 28 February 2026. At the fourth anniversary there were 52 - 49 in Kuno and 3 in Gandhi Sagar - of which 32 were born in India.
• Kuno National Park: in Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh, named after the Kuno river; a wildlife sanctuary upgraded to a national park in 2018, and chosen for the cheetah from ten surveyed sites. The Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh) became the project's second site in April 2025.
• Why cheetahs had to be imported: the cheetah was hunted out of India by the late 1940s, the last records coming from what is now Chhattisgarh. No wild population survived in the country, so the project sources animals from southern Africa - Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.
• NTCA: a statutory body under Section 38L of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, inserted by the 2006 amendment, and the apex body implementing Project Cheetah - which is why an NTCA Inspector General of Forests leads the central team.
• WCCB: the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a statutory body under Section 38Y of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, set up to combat organised wildlife crime through intelligence and coordination with police and customs. Two WCCB officers on the team mark this as a criminal investigation, not only a veterinary inquiry.
• Protected area vs territorial forest: national parks and sanctuaries are run by the Forest Department's wildlife wing; territorial divisions manage other forests, with different staff, mandates and patrolling. A cheetah moving from Kuno into Morena's or Sheopur's territorial forest moves between two protection regimes.
• Two inquiries, one subject: the State's Special Task Force of Forest and Police officers is the investigation under State control; the Central team coordinates with it and reviews protection protocols. Forests and the protection of wild animals and birds are on the Concurrent List (Entries 17A and 17B, List III).
• Population caveat: the count changes month to month with births, deaths and new arrivals. The figure of 52 is the official snapshot at the project's fourth anniversary on 17 September 2026; KNG22 died after it, and the release gives no current total.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.9 · Linkage L1