Government assures SC cheetahs have “winter cover” for African weather.

NEW DELHI: The central government’s ambitious Project Cheetah is facing a major problem, with the animals translocated from South Africa developing a “winter cover”, a thick coat of fur, in anticipation of African winter, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati told the court that this phenomenon was happening when the temperature at the Kuno National Park (KNP), where these cheetahs have been translocated, was around 45-46 degrees.

Nine cheetahs, including three India-born cubs, have died in Madhya Pradesh’s KNP since March this year, raising questions about the management of the project.

At the outset, Bhati told a bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra that cheetah deaths at Kuno were troubling but not alarming.

“The number of deaths is not low given the fact that 20 cheetahs were translocated. The sum and substance of your argument is that everything is going well and there is nothing wrong.

But the general public is concerned about what is being done about the deaths,” Justice Narasimhha told Bhati, who appeared for the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The top court took note of a letter written to it by four South African wildlife experts who said some cheetah deaths could have been prevented with better monitoring and veterinary care.

They had reportedly said their opinion was being ignored by the Project Steering Committee and also suggested some remedial measures.

The bench noted Bhati’s submission that experts are being consulted to check cheetah deaths at KNP and that though the letter in question was said to have been written by four experts, it was signed by only one.