Sheopur: Two brothers have been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) for allegedly killing a 19-month-old Cheetah cub, officially known as Kuno Nirva Gaurav or KNG-22, outside the Kuno National Park.
A licenced double-barrel gun used in the crime has been seized, the police said.
The male cub (KNG-22) was rescued in an injured condition from compartment No. 748 of Sheopur forest division on October 25, an STF official said. It died during treatment two days later. Veterinarians found five pellets inside its body.
The four-member STF arrested Bhagwan Singh, a resident of Morena district, on October 31. His brother was arrested later in the day. Both were remanded in two-day judicial custody on October 31 and produced before the court again on Monday, which sent them to judicial custody, a senior forest department official said, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Bhagwan Singh allegedly confessed that on October 24, he and Pritam Singh had gone to the forest to hunt a wild boar. When they spotted the movement of the Cheetah, he fired at it and fled the spot. A case was registered against both under Sections 9 and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Amended 2022).
They are probing the illegal wildlife trade and organised crime angle in the case, the official said. This is the first case of a Cheetah being shot dead since the big cats were reintroduced in India four years ago. As many as eight forest officials of Morena and Sheopur were suspended for neglect of their duties, the official added.
The killing has led to major concerns about the Cheetah reintroduction plan that is also being overseen by international wildlife experts.
Under India’s Cheetah reintroduction programme, eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia in September 2022, followed by 20 from South Africa in February 2023. Earlier this year, nine more cheetahs were translocated from Botswana.
KNG-22 was an India-born Cheetah. The population of the animals in Madhya Pradesh is now 58.
