African cheetahs that have been released into a small area of forest in Madhya Pradesh under Project Cheetah are seen as a spectacular conservation story by the Union government, but the fast-moving cats are encountering the very problems that experts had predicted three years ago. The recent incident of conflict between the cheetahs and villagers living near Kuno National Park and an earlier contested attack on a child in Umarikala village in March highlights the impact of significant human and livestock presence on wild animals. In the first incident in Virpur tehsil, captured on video by villagers, the cheetahs apparently strayed out of the protected area and tried to hunt domestic animals, provoking people to throw stones to........

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