The Madhya Pradesh forest department has denied a Right to Information request for details on the management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India, citing national security and foreign relations concerns, PTI reported.

Since 2023, seven of the 20 cheetahs translocated from South Africa and Namibia and three cubs born in India have died in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park.

The Right to Information application was filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey seeking correspondence records on Project Cheetah in Kuno and Mandsaur, reported PTI.

However, the department refused to disclose the information, invoking Section 8(1)(a) of the law.

The section allows a public authority to withhold information if its disclosure would “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, or the security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests of the state, or relations with a foreign country, or lead to the incitement of an offence”.

“I have been disclosing irregularities in the conservation of big cats since 2013, but this is the first time I received a reply stating that disclosure of information about cheetahs will affect national security or relations with foreign countries,” Dubey told PTI.

In his previous query, Dubey had received information on the health of the first cheetah cub born in India after the translocation. He also received a photograph of the cub with a bandaged leg.

Dubey then filed a complaint with the National Tiger Conservation Authority alleging that the Madhya Pradesh forest authorities had not informed it about the cheetah’s injury.

In September 2022, the cheetahs were reintroduced to India seven decades after the species was declared extinct in the country.

The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952. Before that, the wild cats were last recorded in the country in 1948, when three cheetahs were shot in the Sal forests in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya District.

In March, the total number of cheetahs, including cubs, in Kuno reached 26 after South African cheetah Gamini gave birth to five cubs. Prior to this, cheetah Aasha had delivered three cubs and cheetah Jwala gave birth to her second litter of four cubs.

Also read: The dark clouds over India’s cheetah project