Three of the last Asiatic cheetahs recorded from India were shot down in 1947, by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Korea, as seen in this photo submitted by his private secretary to JBNHS.[1]

Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo (1901-1958) was the last ruler of erstwhile Korea State.[2] He was crowned as the king of Korea in 1925 and continued to rule the state until the state's merger with independent India on 1 January 1948.[3][4] He was a Rajput by caste.[5][6] He had represented the ruling Chief in the second Round Table Conference held in London in 1931.[3]

He is notorious for killing the last three surviving Asiatic cheetahs of India.[7][8] It is believed that he killed as many as 1710 tigers in the central part of India.[9] His granddaughter, Ambica Singh, defended her grandfather claiming that he never killed big cats for fun but rather hunted only those animals who had turned man-eaters.[10] Nevertheless, while tigers are well-known for occasionally becoming man-eaters, there is no documentation of any wild cheetahs ever killing a human.

He died in 1958.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Divyabhanusinh (1999). The End of a Trail: the Cheetah in India. Banyan Books, New Delhi.
  2. ↑ "'The Story of India's Cheetahs': How the cheetah went from being hunter to hunted". Scroll.in. 17 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 "District Korea". Government of Chhattisgarh.
  4. ↑ "Who was Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, man responsible for killing India's last cheetahs?". Opoyi.com. 2022.
  5. ↑ Dilip Patel (20 September 2022). "Will the Kuno Cheetah can die like Gujarat?". All Gujarat News.
  6. ↑ Report on the Administration of the Feudatory States of the Central Provinces. 2022.
  7. ↑ "कौन थे महाराज रामानुज प्रताप सिंह, जिन्होंने आखिरी भारतीय चीता को गोली मारी थी?". The Lallantop. 17 September 2022.
  8. ↑ "Cheetah: Did India's erstwhile nobility cause its wildlife's downfall? Apply nuance, some say". Down to earth. 19 September 2022.
  9. ↑ "India's natural history comes alive at Victoria". The Telegraph. 27 April 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Never killed for fun: Granddaughter of king accused of hunting India's last cheetahs". India Today. 17 September 2022.
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