Bhubaneswar/Kolkata/Jhargram: Zeenat, the tigress that had left Odisha’s Simlipal Tiger Reserve to enter Jharkhand 12 days ago, crossed over to Bengal from Jharkhand’s Sunsuniya forest early Friday. The tiger entered Belpahari around 4.30am, said S Kulandaivel, chief conservator of forests in Bengal. The big cat had covered about 20km, starting out in Jharkhand sometime late Thursday, he added.
The three-year-old tigress, brought from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve to improve the gene pool of big cats in Simlipal, had left the Odisha forest on the night of Dec 8 to enter Jharkhand, sources said. It reached Jharkhand’s Chakulia, near the Bengal border, on Dec 11, having covered more than 150km. Zeenat has now covered over 200km since it left Simlipal, sources added.
Between Dec 11 and Friday, Zeenat stayed mostly in the forests of Mural, Rajabasa, Dhobasole, Godrasole and Chiyabandhi in Jharkhand, crossing railway tracks more than thrice and venturing into an abandoned World War II airstrip at least twice. In the process, it came close to the Bengal border quite a few times, sometimes near Gidhni and sometimes further north, near Belpahari.
During this period, it covered around 4-5km daily on an average, sometimes travelling even as much as eight to 10km, said Digvijay Singh, the ranger of Jharkhand’s Chakulia. Bengal forest minister Birbaha Hansda said senior foresters had reached Belpahari. “A team from Aranya Bhavan is coordinating with them,” she added.
Kulandaivel said a team of 20 forest officials from Odisha — including trackers and tranquillisation experts — were closely watching the tiger. “More than 50 personnel from Bengal are also with them, helping them in the operation,” he added. He said the tigress had so far avoided humans. An animal ambulance and cages were brought from Jhargram zoo and the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve. Both Bengal and Odisha foresters are also using drones to keep an eye on its movement. A rapid response team from Jharkhand is also present.
Bengal chief wildlife warden Debal Roy said a team from the Sundarbans — comprising tranquillisation experts, vets and field staff, with a specialised cage — has been sent. “If we have to capture it, we have to rely on either a trap cage or tranquillisation. We are keeping both options open,” he added. Bengal’s head of forest force, Niraj Singhal, also reached the spot Friday afternoon.
Sources said three attempts to tranquillise Zeenat were made in Jharkhand. “We thought it would return on its own. Since it didn’t, we are thinking about tranquillising it and bringing it back to Similipal,” Odisha’s chief wildlife warden, Prem Kumar Jha, said.
Jhargram DFO Umar Imam said they had made several announcements in the Belpahari range, asking villagers not to venture into the woods. Villagers had also been advised not to spread panic about tiger sightings.
Wildlife experts have expressed concern about how Zeenat has been behaving ever since it left Similipal after being released from a soft enclosure. They said tigers with the instinct of a sneaker behave like this. “In Tadoba, the tigress must have a sneaker-like imprint; otherwise, it shouldn’t have dispersed that far and crossed the borders of two states. But, for now, it should be brought back and released afresh in Similipal,” said a wildlife expert.
Zeenat had been released in Simlipal North on Nov 23 with a radio collar. Jamuna, another tigress brought to Simlipal from Tadoba, reportedly settled in Simlipal South after its release there on Nov 9.
Meanwhile, tigress Yamuna has moved to explore the neighbouring Kuldhia wildlife sanctuary, close to Similipal, as per its movement tracked through a radio collar. Yamuna is within Odisha and in Similipal biosphere jurisdiction, as Kuldhia is a larger part of Similipal biosphere. Yamuna, two and a half years old, was released in Similipal’s south region. Since then, it has stayed put in the reserve’s core habitat.
Zeenat was released in the north division. The south division is a deep core region, while the north is a mix of core and buffer. Earlier in 2018, a tiger, with its point of origin unknown, made the forests of south Bengal’s Jhargram its home for close to two months before it was found dead with a spear through its face during a ritualistic hunting festival.