Driver set to be disciplined for giving water to India cheetahs in viral video

Independent

08-04-2025

Indian authorities have said they are taking disciplinary action against a worker for offering water to a cheetah and her cubs inside the country's prominent national park housing the wild cats.
India is home to 26 cheetahs, a mix of borrowed animals from South Africa and Namibia and some cubs born in India, for a reintroduction project at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh to repopulate the species in the country and Asia.
The incident was first reported on Sunday in a viral video when a man working as a driver in the national park was seen helping the cheetah and her subs to drink water from a metal pan.
Within seconds, one of the female cheetahs named Jwala and her four cubs were seen walking up to the pan and drinking the water.
The initial response to the video showing the driver helping cheetahs was heartwarming and kind, but shortly after, many pointed out safety concerns between humans and animals in such close-interactions.
In response, the park authorities said that the man has violated instructions which state that only an authorised team of officials can go near the cheetahs, reported Press Trust of India.
They noted that it is not uncommon for certain staff members in the park to offer water to the cheetahs if they approach the boundary of the national park. This helps in keeping the cheetahs within the forest and not run away.
Uttam Kumar Sharma, the additional principal chief conservator of forests, said that the mother and her cubs were in the fields near the park boundary.
"The monitoring team, in general, has been instructed to try to deviate or lure the cheetahs back inside whenever such a situation arises so as not to create human-cheetah conflict," he said.
Only trained personnel are allowed to do so and the driver's actions went against the established protocol, he said.
"There are clear instructions to move away from cheetahs. Only authorised persons can go in close proximity to them to perform a specific task," he said.
Indian authorities relocated a total of 20 cheetahs from South Africa and Namibia to the Kuno national park between 2022 and 2023. Of these, at least eight of the big cats have died due to various reasons like kidney failure and mating injuries.
With the addition of new cubs, the total cheetah population in the park stands at 26.
The project to reintroduce the cheetah, which went extinct in India in 1952, has been controversial. Several wildlife experts had questioned the viability of the animals surviving in the country even before their arrival from Africa, on prime minister Narendra Modi's birthday in 2022.
Scrutiny increased after several of the cheetahs died and many repeatedly strayed outside the national park, only to be tranquilised and brought back.
There are less than 7,000 adult cheetahs left in the wild globally and they now inhabit less than 9 per cent of their original range.