21 days on, wandering Odisha tigress Zeenat sedated & captured in Bengal

KOLKATA/BHUBANESWAR: Tigress Zeenat’s 21-day hide-and-seek with forest officials of three states since straying out of Similipal in Odisha on Dec 8 came to a close at 3.56pm Sunday when she was tranquillised and captured in a village of Bengal’s Bankura after five failed attempts since Saturday afternoon.

Zeenat’s walk on the wild side took her on a nearly 300km journey through Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal as forest personnel tracking her tried every possible strategy to keep her from entering human habitation. After her capture at Gosaindihi village in Bankura, the drowsy tigress embarked on another 200km trip – this time on wheels – to Kolkata’s Alipore zoo.

Once a basic health check is done, she will be “sent to the right destination”, a source in the Bengal forest department said.

Odisha’s chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha said Zeenat would be escorted “back to Similipal”. He said the tigress was being taken to Alipore zoo only for a health check and to complete some official formalities “since she was captured in Bengal territory”. Zeenat, he added, was active and healthy.

Bengal’s chief wildlife warden Debal Roy said Sunday’s operation, which started after 3pm, involved firing a lone tranquillising dart.

Of the previous five shots since Saturday, two were misses. “At one point, she became sluggish from the effect of the tranquilliser but kept moving. We decided to abort the operation around 4.30am Sunday,” Roy said.

Remarkably, the tigress managed to remove one of the first three darts that struck her. “We wanted to avoid any risk of overdose, and hence resumed operation only after 3pm Sunday,” said chief conservator of forests (south-east) S Kulandaivel. In the afternoon, foresters elevated the net fence around the 1.5-hectare operational area. “The focus was on preventing the big cat from leaping across it and escaping,” an official said.

Around 250 personnel from Odisha and Bengal were involved in the operation to capture Zeenat amid growing fears of her possibly straying into human habitation. From Bengal, 200 police and forest personnel were on the job since Dec 20, when Zeenat sneaked into Belpahari from Jharkhand. During its nine-day stay in the state, she traversed three districts — Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura.

Zeenat had been brought to Similipal from Maharashtra’s Tadoba, and was released in Similipal North’s core area on Nov 23. CM Mamata Banerjee congratulated the foresters on the successful rescue operation in a post on X.
(With inputs from Tanuja Singh Deo, Falguni Banerjee & Sujoy Khanra)