The iconic male tiger, admired by thousands of tourists and feared by rivals, reportedly died after a fierce clash in the Khitauli range.Bandhavgarh National Park has lost one of its most recognizable and beloved tigers. Pujari (priest in English) , the majestic male who ruled hearts as much as territories , is believed to have died following a violent territorial clash with D1, another dominant

India’s cheetah population reaches 53 after the tenth litter in Kuno, but experts question whether births inside bomas signal real conservation success.The announcement of the tenth cheetah litter in Kuno National Park on March 9 has pushed India’s cheetah population to 53 individuals. The numbers appear impressive. Of these, 44 cheetahs are currently alive, including nine recently brought

Multiple cheetah deaths in Kuno raise questions about habitat limits, prey scarcity, and management. A data-driven look at the challenges facing India’s cheetah projectTwo back-to-back cheetah deaths—one from a suspected collision inside the forest and another caused by a speeding vehicle—have once again pushed the spotlight onto the ambitious yet troubled cheetah introduction project in Kuno

Three years on, India’s cheetah reintroduction struggles with poor science, delays, and missed grassland goals.In September 2022, the arrival of eight cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno National Park was hailed as a conservation milestone. Five months later in February 2024, 12 more spotted cats arrived from South Africa. The initiative, branded Project Cheetah, carried lofty ambitions. It aimed not

A shocking case in Madhya Pradesh exposes negligence, illegal cremation, and absconding forest staff - raising doubts over tiger conservation efforts. Madhya Pradesh which never misses a chance to flaunt its title as the “Tiger State of India,” now finds itself under a cloud of suspicion and criticism. A recent incident in the Sonewani Conservation Reserve of Balaghat has revealed not

Early Tuesday morning ( August 12) , the sleepy village of Karira in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district found itself at the centre of an unusual wildlife drama. Nestled in the buffer zone of Ranthambhore National Park, the village is used to the occasional leopard sighting or tiger rumor, but this time the visitor was an animal none of the villagers had ever seen up close — a cheetah. And not

Villagers shot videos and took pictures with their mobile phones as a coalition of cheetahs attempted to kill a calf on the outskirts of a village located at the edge of Kuno National Park. As the cheetahs pounced on the calf, the villagers yelled and pelted stones at the cheetahs as they ran into the forest. Although the cheetah trackers tried to stop the villagers, they were outnumbered.

Kuno National park released two short documentaries with beautiful pictures of cheetah cubs and their mothers.The cute cheetah cubs in the moving pictures attract eyeballs. Cheetah siblings playing in the lush green grasslands after monsoon in Kuno fascinate all and sundry. For record, in the last 24 months, the same number of cheetahs survived- 12 adult cheetahs of the original 20

India intends to bring 12 cheetahs annually for 8 to 10 years to continue its ambitious cheetah introduction project. But for the past 18 months, the country has not been able to procure cheetahs from any of the countries in Africa where cheetahs are found . Apparently they- the African countries are "quite worried over the fact that none of the surviving cheetahs in India

India should drop the idea of Ken Betwa Linking Project (KBLP) which will require felling of 2 to 4 million trees in the emerald forests of Panna national park. Think of the loss of this staggering number of trees in the backdrop of the unprecedented summers that the country experienced in the year 2024. Many parts of Bundelkhand

Cheetah rescue operations after they stray away from the safe confines of congested Kuno national park have been reported regularly in India since September 2022 when the maiden batch of African cat landed in India amidst much fanfare. But the latest visuals of yet another such action- this time in&

When Aasha gave birth to three cubs in one of the enclosures of Kuno national park- there was good news and bad news. The good news is that this is the second litter of cheetah on Indian soil after Siyaya, another Namibia cheetah, gave birth to four cubs in March 2023 and that the animal seems to have acclimatized further in India conditions. Birth in captivity will also enhance their

Ahead of the first anniversary of the controvertial cheetah project and the release of African cheetahs in Kuno national park, interesting observations have been shared by the director of the park where 14 cheetahs await re-release in the wild. They were caught and brought back to bomas following 6 cheetah deaths after septicemia caused

Over fifty people in a village of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh risked their life as they played around an ailing leopard .The leopard was spotted in an isolated area of Eklara Mata village, about 70 kms away from the district headquarter of the industrial town of Dewas on August 29. The spotted cat is suffering from some neurological disorder which may have been

Officials in the Union ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC&C) and those involved in cheetah translocation in Namibia and South Africa heaved a huge sigh of relief after Nirva, the female cheetah missing since July 21 was captured in Kuno national park. But the operation to capture Nirva was a huge exercise and, perhaps, has no parallel in

Recent seizure of bones and skin of a tiger in Assam leading to arrest of poachers and a tiger part trader ,former employee of the Wildlife wing of Delhi forest department ,should be a wake up call for the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) . Body parts of the tiger from Chandrapur -Gadchiroli districts in Maharashtra were confiscated more than 2000 kms

While reporting for television and the print media during a long period of over three decades , I noticed a tendency of Indian bureaucracy - most of the bureaucrats in India seem to have trained themselves for hiding information. There is also lack of transparency especially while dealing with the community outside their sphere. International experts in cheetah translocation project&

On July 24, the Goa bench of Bombay High Court took the help of an ancient Indian epic Mahabharata to explain the state government the importance of the tiger . “If there is no forest, then the tiger gets killed; if there is no tiger, then the forest gets destroyed. Hence, the tiger protects the forest, and the forest guards the tiger!” The court cited the epic while

India’s cheetah project has derailed as it faces an unprecedented crisis, not even anticipated by the cheetah managers- neither from Africa nor India. Though the project- wrapped in secrecy- envisioned a high mortality of cheetah , the present cause of deaths did not find any mention in the Cheetah Action Plan. There are more issues including politics, bureaucratic

In a huge embarrassment to senior members of the Steering Committee for Cheetah project and international experts including Laurie Marker of Cheetah Conservation Fund(CCF), one of the biggest names in cheetah conservation in the world, the Union ministry of Environment forest and climate change (MoEFC&C) denied cheetah deaths