Kuno Cheetah KNG22 Dies of Pellet Injuries; Centre Sends Team

Wildlife protection in central India came under fresh scrutiny on 28 October 2026, when the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said a central team would travel to Madhya Pradesh to look into the killing of a young cheetah by gunfire. The animal, a male carrying the identification code KNG22, was 19 months old and belonged to the reintroduced population of Kuno National Park.

How the animal died

The cheetah, born to the female named Nirva, was spotted wounded on 25 October 2026 in the territorial forests of Morena, a stretch lying beyond the boundary of the protected area. Staff of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department picked it up the same day from the Sheopur Territorial Forest Division and shifted it for treatment. Veterinarians at the facility in Jabalpur gave it intensive care and performed emergency surgery, in the course of which five pellets fired from a gun were taken out of its body. The treatment did not save it, and the animal died on 27 October 2026. Medical examination tied several internal wounds to the pellets that had been removed.

Who is investigating

The Union Government treated the case as grave because each surviving animal counts for Project Cheetah, the programme under which the big cat was brought back to Indian forests. Three officers make up the central team: the Inspector General of Forests of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Additional Director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), and the Bureau's Regional Deputy Director. They are to sift the available evidence, settle how the shooting came about, and work closely with the State forest administration so that action is both strict and quick.

The State's own inquiry

Madhya Pradesh had already raised a Special Task Force of forest and police officers for the case, and the officers from Delhi will act alongside that force rather than separately. Beyond fixing responsibility for this one death, the central team has been asked to look at how the security drill around the cheetahs is being followed and how the animals are watched and guarded, so that a repeat grows less likely. Its findings and recommendations go back to the Ministry, which will then issue directions to the State Government and to officers in the field.