Tigress Zeenat handed over to Simlipal

Kolkata: Tigress Zeenat which was brought to Alipore Zoo on Sunday night after tranquilisation at Gosaidingi forest in South Bankura was handed over to the authorities of Simlipal Tiger Reserve of Odisha at around 8.12 pm on Tuesday.

Zeenat was brought from Maharashtra and released at Simlipal in the last week of November. She travelled a long distance and sneaked into forest areas of Jharkhand and Bengal since December 10 and was ultimately tranquilised after sustained and patient approach of the state foresters on Sunday late afternoon. The tigress was roaming in the forests of Jhargram and Purulia since December 20 and was ultimately captured under Gopalpur Mouza at Gosaidingi forest in south Bankura at 3.56 pm on Sunday after the tranquilising team made a darting.

“We have handed over the tigress in the best of health conditions after an extraordinary rescue operation to a team that was led by the Director of Simlipal Tiger Reserve. The big cat will be taken to our neighbouring state through a green corridor,” said a senior official of the state Forest department.

Birbaha Hansda, state Forest minister, said that the entire process of handover has been documented and the Simlipal authorities were convinced that the tigress was doing perfectly normal in terms of health. Prakash Chand Gogineni, the Director of STR, was in Kolkata and led the convoy associated with transportation of the tigress. The tigress which was under supervision of veterinarians at Alipore Zoo hospital had been mainly on liquid diet (ORS) and had refused to take meat. She was released in a cage inside the zoo hospital on Tuesday morning and it was found to be moving 100 per cent normally.

A vet involved in the supervision of Zeenat at zoo hospital said that it was nothing unnatural for the tigress to have an apathy for meat considering the fact that it was deprived of its natural habitat where she will eat after hunting her prey.