Two cheetah cubs at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh were found dead three days after their birth.
KNP staffers recovered the mutilated bodies of the newborns.
Neerva, a South African cheetah, had given birth to the two cubs on 25 November in one of the Boma (a large enclosure in the wild) at KNP.
According to KNP Director Uttam Kumar Sharma, after receiving signals through radio telemetry that Neerva was away from her den, a team of forest staffers monitoring the movement of cheetahs, along with veterinarians, rushed to the spot and found the mutilated carcasses of the two cubs on Wednesday.
The KNP team did not find any more cheetah cubs, dead or alive, after a thorough search in the area, ascertained that Neerva had given birth to only two cubs and both were dead.
An official said the samples from the dead cubs were sent for forensic examination to ascertain the cause of their death.
Cheetah Neerva is around four-and-a-half-years old and this was her first litter.
Presently there are 24 cheetahs in KNP, including 11 cubs less than one year of age, one sub-adult that is 20 months old and 12 adults.