Tigress Zeenat brought back to Odisha after three weeks, in good health: Official

Tigress Zeenat that terrorised villagers in Jharkhand and West Bengal was bought back to the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after it left STR, an official said.

The animal, which walked into Jharkhand forests on December 8 and later entered West Bengal, was brought to STR in the early hours of Wednesday. She was released in an enclosure in the core area of STR in the morning.

“Tigress Zeenat reached Similipal. The animal was soft released into an enclosure at 7.30 AM today. It is in good health,” STR field director Dr Prakash Chand Gogineni told PTI.

Earlier, Odisha’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) P K Jha had said that the three-year-old animal would be kept in the enclosure for some days and her movement and activities would be monitored before deciding on her release into the wild.

The tigress was brought to Similpal from the veterinary hospital of Alipore Zoo in Kolkata in a special vehicle following the intervention of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), an official said.

The animal was transported to STR in Odisha through a Green Corridor through the interstate border at Jamshola around 1:25 am on January 1, 2025, the official said.

A 10-member team of the Odisha Forest Department headed by STR field director supervised movement of the tigress.

Zeenat was brought to Similipal from Maharashtra’s Tadoba in November to strengthen the gene pool of the tiger population in the reserve.

She crossed over to Jharkhand from Similipal in the early hours of December 8, and from there to West Bengal, covering more than 200 km in about three weeks in search of new territory after terrorising villagers and eluding forest guards on its way.

The tigress which was roaming in the wild was tranquilised in West Bengal’s Bankura district on December 29 and taken to Alipore zoo.

West Bengal’s Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy on Tuesday said that Zeenat was in good health and on a liquid diet.

“She is perfectly in good health but she did not show any interest in buffalo or goat meat and sustained on ORS drips at regular intervals,” he said.

Roy said following discussions with the NTCA and after a three-member team of veterinary doctors gave a fit certificate, the state Forest Department arranged a vehicle to send the animal to Similipal, around 350 km away, along with a security escort.

Earlier, in a letter to the West Bengal’s chief wildlife warden, the NTCA had said, “It is also requested to apprise this Authority for the reason why the said tigress was shifted to Alipore Zoo, instead of translocating it back to the state of Odisha as per the SOP.”