Dr Gopal, secretary general of the Global Tiger Forum and an acclaimed tiger expert, had been tasked to head the committee following the death of three cheetah cubs at Kuno National Park.

The committee, comprising national and international experts and meant to oversee the implementation of Project Cheetah, had given a go-ahead to release the cheetahs into the wild after it found the “arrangements, management and monitoring satisfactory”.

The cheetahs, including a coalition of two males and a female, a pair of a male and a female, and a solitary male, are currently in three separate hunting enclosures. They will be released starting the third week of June.

“We went around their enclosures and even saw two cheetahs. They had killed a spotted deer. We spoke to the local officials in a long interaction about the details related to their security. We felt that this was going on the right track. No need for alarm,” Gopal told The Indian Express.

He dismissed apprehensions regarding space availability and ruled out shifting the existing cheetahs out of the KNP.

“There is as much as 6,800 square km of wilderness available in and around Kuno, including the Madhav National Park and its additional area. KNP itself has an area of about 750 square km and an additional open stretch of 480 sq km. This space is quite sufficient for 21 cheetahs as mentioned in the initial action plan on cheetah reintroduction,” Dr Gopal said.

Before their release, the committee experts will help the KNP authorities carry out a fragmentation analysis of the landscape of KNP area using remote sensing data and geographic information system (GIS).

The committee members believe this needs to be carried out to “find out the vulnerable areas in context of cheetah movement”.

“There are nine field personnel for monitoring one cheetah in the wild. The animals are collared and one visual is captured every 24 hours. We will hold monthly meetings and discuss issues as required,” Dr Gopal said.

The steering committee has asked the KNP authorities to start a community stewardship system ahead of the release of more cheetahs, where locals could be trained and paid for patrolling along with the departmental staff.

“Community groups need to be created from village clusters based on fragmentation analysis and they need to be paid money into their account,” Dr Gopal said, stressing that this system was successful with the tiger project

So far, six deaths (including three newborn cubs) have taken place within two months, though Dr Gopal said the “deaths were found to be natural”. He said that the fourth cub is in good health and might be shifted out of the treatment facility soon.