Gwalior, 7 Dec

A male cheetah cub that wandered out of the Kuno National Park (KNP) died after being hit by an unidentified vehicle on a highway in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior district early on Sunday, police said.

The incident occurred on the Agra–Mumbai National Highway in the Ghatigaon area, close to the Shivpuri district border, around 35–40km from the City, Gwalior Zone Inspector General of Police Arvind Saxena said.

The nearly 20-month-old cub had strayed out of KNP and been separated from its mother. It died after being hit by an unidentified vehicle, Saxena said. A police probe team has some leads about a car suspected to have struck the cub.

“We have reduced traffic and curtailed speed on the highway to prevent any untoward incident, as another male cub separated from the same mother might still be around. Both were earlier spotted together,” he said.

“The other cub was safe,” State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Subharajan Sen said.

Officials said the dead cub was the offspring of Gamini, a cheetah brought from South Africa as part of India’s project to revive its big cat population. In March, Gamini and her four cubs, two male and two female were released in the Khajuri forest area of KNP.

Another cheetah cub was found dead on Friday, a day after being released into the wild at KNP.