Three cheetah cubs die in India amid sweltering heat wave

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three cheetah cubs born to a big cat brought to India from Africa last year died in the past week in central India’s Kuno National Park. Officials didn’t say what caused the deaths, but a sweltering heat wave in India is believed to have weakened the cubs. They were the first to be born in India in more than seven decades. Once widespread in India, cheetahs became extinct in 1952 from hunting and habitat loss. Their mother was among the 20 that India flew in from Namibia and South Africa as a part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce them to Indian grasslands.