Bhubaneswar: As tigress Zeenat, who strayed into the forests of West Bengal from Odisha’s Similipal, is showing no sign of returning to the tiger reserve on its own, we are planning to get the big cat back by tranquilising her, informed Baripada Regional Chief Conservator of Forests (RCCF) Prakash Chand Gogineni on Sunday.
The Odisha and West Bengal Forest Department officials are closely monitoring Zeenat’s movement. The three-year-old big cat’s health condition is stable, Gogineni said. It has been over ten days since Zeenat has ventured out of Similipal, and showing no signs of returning. The tigress was seen roaming around in parts of Jharkhand, before being traced at Belpahari forest in West Bengal.
However, as per NTCA guidelines, Zeenat cannot be tranquilised if she wanders in the forest. She can only be tranquilised if she strays into human settlement and attacks humans and live stocks.
As per sources, Zeenat is not willing to return to Odisha as it has an ample amount of prey in the Belpahari forests. But the Odisha Forest Department officials are making all efforts to bring the big cat back to the Similipal Tiger Reserve.
Though the Odisha Forest Department officials have set up camouflaged cages with trap doors and cattle kept as bait, the full-grown tiger is yet to fall into the trap.
As Belpahari is a tourist destination in West Bengal, the government is making announcements about the presence of the tiger in the region to make tourists cautious, sources informed.
Meanwhile, three teams from Similipal Tiger Reserve and one from Sundarbans are closely monitoring the movement of the tiger.
Notably, two tigresses Yamuna and Zeenat were translocated from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra and released into the core area of the Similipal Tiger Reserve to infuse a fresh gene pool in the tiger reserve.
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