BHOPAL: A dispute over livestock loss involving a Kuno cheetah has escalated into an interstate confrontation, with three Madhya Pradesh forest personnel allegedly assaulted and detained by villagers in Rajasthan 's Karauli district.




Senior forest officials had to intervene to secure the team's release, while an FIR was registered at Mandrayal police station on November 3 on the complaint of a Kuno forest guard.




The incident occurred near the KGP-3 canal in Chandeli Pura gram panchayat, under Mandrayal police station limits, where cheetah KGP-3 had allegedly killed a male buffalo calf. A three-member tracking team deployed by Kuno Wildlife Forest Division had reached the area to monitor the animal's movement when villagers confronted them.




According to the FIR lodged by forest guard Alok Prajapati, 34, a resident of Morena district in Madhya Pradesh, with the Rajasthan police an elderly villager approached him seeking compensation for the buffalo calf killed by the cheetah. Prajapati told him that the claim would be processed under the prescribed procedure, following which the man allegedly mobilised other villagers.




The complaint states that around five to six people subsequently confronted the forest guard, assaulted him, grabbed him by the neck and subjected him to caste-based abuse . The elderly man allegedly threatened him with an axe. The villagers also allegedly pelted stones at the cheetah and threatened to kill the animal as well as members of the tracking team.




The three personnel were allegedly roughed up and detained during the confrontation. The situation required intervention by senior forest officials, following which the team members were brought to safety.




Rajasthan’s Mandrayal police registered a case under Sections 121(1), 132, 351(2) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty, assault or criminal force against a public servant, criminal intimidation and intentional insult. Police have initiated an investigation into the complaint.




Some officials believe delays in processing and disbursing compensation for cattle killed by wildlife are among the reasons villagers become hostile towards field personnel.




The confrontation comes barely days after the death of Kuno's 19-month-old cheetah cub KNG-22, born to female cheetah Nirva.




The cub was shot in the territorial forest area of Morena on October 25 after straying out of Kuno. Five pellets were recovered from its body. It was shifted to the Veterinary University in Jabalpur but died during treatment and surgery on October 27. Two suspected poachers have been arrested, while six forest personnel have been suspended in connection with the case.




This is not the first time that teams monitoring Kuno's cheetahs have faced hostility from local residents. In 2023, a team tracking female cheetah Aasha in the Burakheda area of Shivpuri was allegedly mistaken for a gang of dacoits by villagers and assaulted. Reports of aerial firing also emerged during that incident.




Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has questioned the security arrangements for personnel deployed to monitor cheetahs outside protected areas. He has called for intervention by the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and other concerned agencies.