Tigress Zeenat gives sleepless nights to three states | Bhubaneswar News
Ranchi/Bhubaneshwar/Kolkata: Three-year-old tigress Zeenat has been giving sleepless nights to forest officials of two states — Jharkhand and Odisha — and has kept the counterparts in neighbouring West Bengal on tenterhooks for the past five days.
The smart tigress brought from the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as part of an interstate translocation project to infuse a fresh genetic pool in Similipal, has dodged all efforts to trap her. She tried preying on the bait — a buffalo — but soon realised the danger and sneaked into the wilderness on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, giving a thumbs down to over two dozen forest officials from Jharkhand and Odisha.
She reportedly moved back slightly towards the south of Rajabasa in Jharkhand’s Chakulia range on Friday, covering 10 km from the location where it was tracked by field personnel on monitoring duty. Though the forest officials remained sceptical about sharing the exact location of the big cat, fearing her safety, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Odisha, Prem Kumar Jha, said, “The tigress is exploring new territory and is in a safe zone. It moved back without proceeding deeper into Jharkhand territory. This could indicate a return to where it dispersed. We need to wait and watch. It killed a prey that was offered as bait in the wild.”
Despite attacking the bait placed by the forest officials, Zeenat managed to give a slip to the team trying to shoot a tranquillising dart. Divisional forest officer, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Saba Alam Ansari, said finally no dart was shot. “The visibility was poor for the tigress to be targeted,” he said.
The exact reason for Zeenat’s venturing out of the tiger reserve is not known. Tigress Yamuna, who was also brought from Maharashtra and released in Simlipal’s southern part, is happily exploring there. “Tigers do migrate, sometimes as far as 200 km in search of a good prey base or for a safe shelter during pregnancy, but there has to be a trigger for such long-distance migrations,” said Lal Ratnakar Singh, former principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden, Jharkhand. He said that since the tigress was brought from Maharashtra, there could be chances that she ventured out searching for her ‘original territory’.
Apart from forest officials, villagers in Machiadih-Rajabasa, Kharbanda, Sunsunia, and Morbeda in Chakulia block are on edge, fearing an attack on cattle and human lives as the forest cover in that area is thin with a minimal prey base. Satyajit Singh, chief wildlife warden, Jharkhand, said a private school close to the place where the tigress was tracked remained closed while prohibitory orders have been issued to check the gathering of a curious crowd. “Chakulia range has an extremely poor prey base, which may force the tigress either to return or hunt cattle,” Singh told TOI.
Dean of the veterinary science department at Birsa Agriculture University, Dr Sushil Prasad, said that the feline marks their territory and it is spread over a 30-40 square kilometre area. “In case there is a dearth of prey base, the tigress might have moved out, but usually, they return on their own if they do not find the new area suitable,” he said. The forest team is equipped with a conventional trap but is yet to deploy an automatic trap.
The West Bengal border, which is 20 km from where the tigress was once spotted, has kept their officials ready and also deployed an animal ambulance for any eventuality. “Three forest teams are patrolling the bordering area regularly,” said Vijay Salimath, chief conservator of forests, West Bengal.
(With inputs from B Sridhar in Jamshedpur)
The smart tigress brought from the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as part of an interstate translocation project to infuse a fresh genetic pool in Similipal, has dodged all efforts to trap her. She tried preying on the bait — a buffalo — but soon realised the danger and sneaked into the wilderness on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, giving a thumbs down to over two dozen forest officials from Jharkhand and Odisha.
She reportedly moved back slightly towards the south of Rajabasa in Jharkhand’s Chakulia range on Friday, covering 10 km from the location where it was tracked by field personnel on monitoring duty. Though the forest officials remained sceptical about sharing the exact location of the big cat, fearing her safety, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Odisha, Prem Kumar Jha, said, “The tigress is exploring new territory and is in a safe zone. It moved back without proceeding deeper into Jharkhand territory. This could indicate a return to where it dispersed. We need to wait and watch. It killed a prey that was offered as bait in the wild.”
Despite attacking the bait placed by the forest officials, Zeenat managed to give a slip to the team trying to shoot a tranquillising dart. Divisional forest officer, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Saba Alam Ansari, said finally no dart was shot. “The visibility was poor for the tigress to be targeted,” he said.
The exact reason for Zeenat’s venturing out of the tiger reserve is not known. Tigress Yamuna, who was also brought from Maharashtra and released in Simlipal’s southern part, is happily exploring there. “Tigers do migrate, sometimes as far as 200 km in search of a good prey base or for a safe shelter during pregnancy, but there has to be a trigger for such long-distance migrations,” said Lal Ratnakar Singh, former principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden, Jharkhand. He said that since the tigress was brought from Maharashtra, there could be chances that she ventured out searching for her ‘original territory’.
Apart from forest officials, villagers in Machiadih-Rajabasa, Kharbanda, Sunsunia, and Morbeda in Chakulia block are on edge, fearing an attack on cattle and human lives as the forest cover in that area is thin with a minimal prey base. Satyajit Singh, chief wildlife warden, Jharkhand, said a private school close to the place where the tigress was tracked remained closed while prohibitory orders have been issued to check the gathering of a curious crowd. “Chakulia range has an extremely poor prey base, which may force the tigress either to return or hunt cattle,” Singh told TOI.
Dean of the veterinary science department at Birsa Agriculture University, Dr Sushil Prasad, said that the feline marks their territory and it is spread over a 30-40 square kilometre area. “In case there is a dearth of prey base, the tigress might have moved out, but usually, they return on their own if they do not find the new area suitable,” he said. The forest team is equipped with a conventional trap but is yet to deploy an automatic trap.
The West Bengal border, which is 20 km from where the tigress was once spotted, has kept their officials ready and also deployed an animal ambulance for any eventuality. “Three forest teams are patrolling the bordering area regularly,” said Vijay Salimath, chief conservator of forests, West Bengal.
(With inputs from B Sridhar in Jamshedpur)
