Tigress released into Similipal, explores northern part

Bhubaneswar: State wildlife wing Monday released the second tigress, Zeenat, brought from Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve, from a soft enclosure into the wild in Similipal Tiger Reserve. Zeenat, a three-year-old, was brought to Odisha on Nov 13 and was lodged in a soft quarantine enclosure the day after. "The tigress got out of the enclosure hours after the gate was opened. It didn't walk out through the normal gate. We had to cut the fence of the enclosure from the other end, and then it swiftly ran into the forest. It is now exploring the northern part of the reserve," said Susanta Nanda, principal chief conservator of forests, wildlife.Zeenat was released into the wild once the wildlife authorities were convinced that its hunting skill was quite agile and normal. "In the case of the first tigress, Yamuna, we took two weeks to release it into the wild because it was 2.7 years old and took a bit longer to hunt prey in the enclosure. But Zeenat was released in 10 days as its prey killing was quick," Nanda added.Earlier, tigress Yamuna was released under the inter-state tiger translocation programme. Now, both tigresses will be carriers of the new gene pool in the reserve and help breed healthy tigers. Yamuna has been exploring the southern part of the vast 2,750 sq km of the Similipal landscape. On a given day, it is travelling between seven and 10 km.Wildlife officials said female tigers get acclimatised in a new habitat sooner than male cats. They said both the female tigers are expected to be compatible with the Similipal mates. Similipal has a robust prey density, which can sustain the tiger population. The National Centre for Biological Sciences and Similipal are both working on compatibility factors of tigers from the Central India landscape with that of Similipal.