Zeenat, a three-year-old female tiger, left Odisha’s Simlipal Tiger Reserve (STR) nearly three weeks ago. The wild cat, with a tracking collar, has since moved out of the state and entered Jharkhand before venturing into West Bengal.
Attempts are being made daily to capture Zeenat. A team of officials equipped with tranquillisers entered the forest at Dangardi in Purulia but the tiger managed to escape by leaping over a nylon net fence set for her. She outmanoeuvred the team, which failed to fire the tranquilliser dart in time.
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Before reaching Dangardi, Zeenat had spent five days in Purulia’s Bandwan forests, where the district administration imposed prohibitory orders to facilitate her capture. Despite attempts to bait her with goats and buffaloes, while using modern tools like satellite trackers, thermal imaging drones, and night-vision equipment in the mission to capture her, the tiger remained elusive.
Officials even resorted to traditional methods, enlisting a “Hula Party” armed with burning spears to corner her, bursting crackers, and firing gunshots to startle her. However, these measures only prompted her to leave Bandwan and head toward Dangardi.
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Despite wearing a radio collar through which forest officials from Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal are constantly trying to trace her locations, the three-year-old tiger has made it challenging for them to even get a clear sighting of her. Zeenat, who was relocated to Simlipal from Tadoba-Andhari in Maharashtra on November 24, continues to defy all attempts to be captured.
As per latest reports, forest officials are unsure about the exact location of Zeenat, who has been renamed ‘Ganga’ in West Bengal. They anticipate she might have left Purulia and entered a neighbouring district.
