Cheetah Goes Off Monitoring Radar For Nearly A Week in Kuno, Forest Staff Start Search

New Delhi: Female cheetah Nirva has gone off the radar for almost a week in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park and this has triggered a large-scale search operation, reported the Free Press Journal.

According to the report, Nirva’s radiocollar had not sent a signal for at least four days. Rains during this period may have affected the satellite signal, the FPJ report quoted the state’s principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Samita Rajora as saying.

The forest department has begun a search for Nirva. Per the report, five teams comprising more than 100 forest staff have been engaged to look for the cheetah. Drones and CCTV cameras are also being used to search the region. The Wire has reached out to Kuno's field director, Uttam Kumar Sharma, for details. The story will be updated if a response is received.

Nirva’s radiocollar had malfunctioned before, in May 2023, right after the animal – which came from South Africa in February that year – was released in the wild. Authorities received no signals from its collar from July 21 to August 12 (22 days); the cheetah essentially ‘went missing’ during this time. On August 13, the animal was captured and its radiocollar replaced.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who has raised several concerns about Project Cheetah and its functioning in the past, asked for accountability and demanded that the government take immediate action.

“Female cheetah Nirva has been missing from Kuno National Park for over a week, while the failed Field Director spent his time targeting citizens and activists on social media as "dimagi Naxals" instead of monitoring the wildlife. If there had been real accountability and action on the ground, Kuno wouldn't be losing leopards and other wild animals to poaching. It is time for the government to take immediate, strict action,” Dubey said in a post on X on Monday (August 24).

Dubey was referring to a comment Sharma made on August 17, regarding a case that is currently under investigation, in which authorities confiscated ten leopard skins in Uttar Pradesh; a wildlife NGO has been implicated in the crime.

“Not everyone who claims to be helping wildlife necessarily understands field realities or has the same objectives,” Sharma had said in his social media post in this context. “There are ‘Dimagi Naxals’ everywhere. This is what we are up against.”

The term ‘dimagi naxals’ used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 in his address to the nation on the 80th anniversary of India’s independence has come under heavy criticism.

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