A female Cheetah named ‘Sasha’, who was brought from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, died Monday after suffering a kidney ailment, more than 6 months after she was translocated along with seven other big cats to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) from the African country, a top forest department official said.

The death of the more than four-and-a-half years old female feline is being seen as a setback to Project Cheetah, aimed at reviving the population of the world’s fastest land animal in India, seven decades after they became extinct. Eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia in mid-September last year and housed in the KNP in the Sheopur district.