Kolkata/Baripada: Tigress Zeenat, who escaped from Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve 17 days back, reached Ranibandh in West Bengal’s Bankura district Saturday after terrorising villagers and eluding forest guards on its way.
Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Roy told PTI the tigress reached Gopalpur jungle in Ranibandh from Manbazar in Purulia district.
Forest personnel from West Bengal’s Sunderban and Jhargram, and Odisha are ready with tranquiliser guns and cages to capture her, he said.
“She is now some distance away from the Gosaidihi village in Ranibandh. The locality has been surrounded by nylon nets. The waiting game continues but she will be trapped soon,” he added.
Another forest officer said tranquiliser shots had been fired targeting her on the basis of the location of her radio collar.
“However, since visibility is poor in the jungle due to the prevalence of misty conditions, forest personnel cannot directly go near her. It is yet to be verified whether she has been hit,” he said.
Zeenat travelled about 15 km to seek refuge in a forest in Manbazar block December 27 from Bandwan where she was holed up between December 24 and 26. She has been in West Bengal for nearly a week after crossing over from Jharkhand.
The big cat has so far not touched the baits kept in trap-door cages but devoured domestic goats that strayed into the forests.
She has been travelling shorter distances over the last few days, officials said.
Drones have been deployed to monitor her movements but heavy forests are affecting the surveillance, they said.
The tigress has covered over 120 km, roaming the forests at the tri-junction of West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha, in search of new territory after leaving Similipal. She has shown no signs of heading back to Similipal so far, they added.
Zeenat was brought to Similipal from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra last month with the goal of introducing a new gene pool to the tiger population.
PTI
