Cheetah Nirwa found safe after 21 days, returns to Kuno enclosure as collar failed

Female cheetah Nirwa, brought to Kuno National Park from South Africa, has been found safe nearly 21 days after she went missing from the park. Her satellite collar had stopped transmitting signals, leaving forest officials without a confirmed location during the monsoon.

After an extended search operation, the Kuno team finally traced Nirwa and safely brought her back to an enclosure. Her recovery has come as a major relief for officials associated with the cheetah reintroduction project. Kuno National Park Field Director Uttam Kumar Sharma shared the development on X while highlighting the achievement of the cheetah project. He said the search continued despite the absence of signals from Nirwa’s collar.

For nearly 21 days, the team had been unable to obtain reliable information about her location.

The malfunctioning collar had made monitoring Nirwa particularly challenging. Her presence in the forest remained uncertain during the monsoon, when changing weather conditions and dense vegetation can make tracking wildlife more difficult. The team continued its efforts and eventually succeeded in tracing her location and bringing her back safely.

Nirwa’s prolonged disappearance and the failure of her collar had also triggered concerns outside the park. Wildlife worker Ajay Dubey had submitted a written complaint to the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests and the Member Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), seeking a high-level inquiry into the matter and an examination of the technical failure of the collar.

The complaint also raised the deaths of sniffer dogs Ilu and Ruby in Kuno and sought an inquiry into alleged management lapses and action against those found responsible. It further called for an independent investigation into reported wildlife poaching cases in the park.

With Nirwa now safely located and returned to the enclosure, the development has provided relief to officials involved in the cheetah project. However, questions surrounding the collar failure and why her location could not be established for nearly three weeks remain. The reasons behind the loss of the satellite signal and the extended tracking gap are expected to become clearer through further examination.

The successful recovery also underscores the challenges involved in monitoring cheetahs in a large forest landscape, particularly during the monsoon when field conditions can complicate search and tracking operations.