A Namibian female cheetah was found dead at the Kuno National Park on Wednesday amid concerns over how wildlife authorities are managing what some experts have described as a “vanity project” rushed without adequate preparations.

This was the ninth death under the cheetah introduction project.

Wildlife staff in Kuno found the Namibian female named Tbilisi — renamed Dhatri by India — dead during efforts to locate and bring back two female cheetahs roaming in the park’s unfenced area, the Union environment ministry said.

“Post-mortem is being conducted to determine the cause of the death,” the ministry said in a note released to the media.

The remaining cheetahs — seven males, six females and one female cub — currently within fenced enclosures are healthy, it said.

The environment ministry brought eight cheetahs from Namibia in September last year and 12 from South Africa in February this year for the cheetah introduction project that seeks to establish clusters of wild cheetahs in wildlife sanctuaries in India.

Until Tbilisi’s death, the project had lost eight cheetahs — five adults and three of the four cubs that were born in Kuno in March this year. Wildlife biologists guiding the project said they had expected some cheetah mortalities to occur during the project but believed that some deaths could have been prevented by better monitoring of the animals and through timely and appropriate veterinary care.