Guwahati, Oct. 27 -- A 19-month-old male cheetah cub at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park has died after being found with multiple metal pellets lodged in its abdomen in a suspected shooting, forest department sources said.

The cub, one of the offspring of cheetah Nirva, was rescued on the night of October 25 from a forest area in Morena district bordering Sheopur and shifted to Jabalpur for advanced medical treatment. Its death has raised concerns over the safety of cheetahs moving beyond protected areas.

The incident, if confirmed as a shooting, would be the first reported suspected case of a cheetah being shot since the species was reintroduced in India in September 2022 under Project Cheetah.

Three or four metal pellets were repo...