Three long-awaited cheetah cubs recently died in India during its current sweltering heatwave. The cubs were born in March to a female Namibian cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, named ‘Jwala’, who had been relocated last year to India from Africa as part of a reintroduction effort. Her cubs, the first to be born in India in more than 70 years, died in the Kuno National Park this past week.
Named for the Kuno River, which flows through it, the Kuno National Park was originally established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary before it was given the status of a National Park in 2018. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir arid deciduous forests ecoregion in the Sheopur and Morena districts of Madhya Pradesh Province in central India.