The special task force (STF), formed to probe the killing of a male cheetah cub outside Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP), said on Monday that no organised wildlife crime or illegal wildlife trade syndicate was involved. It added that the two people arrested in the case for killing the animal were motivated by recreational hunting.Also read | What does the shooting of a Kuno cheetah cub mean for Project Cheetah? | ExplainedIn a statement, the STF member-secretary said that two brothers — Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Singh — had been arrested for killing the cheetah, KNG22, and a licensed double barrel muzzle-loading gun, traditionally called bharmar gun, had also been recovered.The Hindu had earlier reported the arrest of two persons.
The 19-month-old cub, KNG22, offspring of the South African cheetah Nirva, had been found with five gunshot injuries in Sheopur forest division on October 25, about 50 kilometres from its home in KNP, and died during treatment on October 27 in Jabalpur. This marked the first instance of a cheetah being shot since Project Cheetah was launched in September 2022.
Hours after the deaths, a four-member STF, comprising forest and police officers, had been formed to probe the case.The STF said that the two accused have been booked under Sections 9 and 51 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and were sent to judicial custody on Monday.Forest scouredThe STF said that an extensive search of the forest was conducted with the help of Morena Police, Sheopur and Morena forest divisions, dog squads, and the local intelligence network. Based on the inputs received, Mr.
Bhagwan Singh was arrested on October 31, and he had been remanded for two days for questioning, it said“The accused revealed that on October 24, 2026, he and his brother, Pritam Singh, were present in the forest near Nitanwas village, Vijaypur [Sheopur district], with the intent to hunt. The accused located the cheetah and opened fire with his licensed, double-barreled, muzzle-loading [cap-lock] gun, after which he fled the scene.
Based on a statement provided by Bhagwan Singh, the STF — assisted by the Morena police — also took his brother, Pritam Singh, into custody,” the statement said. “Both accused were taken to the crime scene for identification, and, acting on their information, the licensed, double-barreled, muzzle-loading gun used in the hunt was recovered from the forest in the Morena forest division and duly seized,” it added. The two accused are residents of Navalpura-Behrara village under Morena district’s Pahargarh sub-division, which shares a border with Sheopur district.The hunting of KNG22 also brings the focus back to the species’ past as it is believed that the last three cheetahs in India were hunted down by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Koriya in today’s Chhattisgarh, in 1947-48.
The species was officially declared extinct in 1952.Wildlife syndicate not involvedThe STF said, “The investigation concluded that no commercial (illegal wildlife trade), or organized wildlife crime syndicate was involved.”The country’s total cheetah population is currently at 58, of which 52 are at Kuno. The reintroduction programme was launched on September 17, 2022, with the first inter-continental translocation of eight cheetahs from Namibia, which were released at Kuno by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The second batch of 20 cheetahs came from South Africa in February 2023. In February this year, nine cheetahs were translocated from Botswana after President Draupadi Murmu visited the African nation.
So far, 41 cheetah births have taken place in India while 26 big cats have died since the project’s inception with KNG22 becoming the first cheetah to be killed by a firearm.The authorities have also been developing more habitats to diversify the cheetah population and at present four animals are roaming a 64 sq km fenced enclosure at the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary spanning Mandsaur and Neemuch districts.Earlier this month, two cheetahs were released into the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve in Sagar district, making it the third home for the species.