When Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi last week broke the news of Maharashtra-born tigress Zeenat giving birth to four cubs in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, he acknowledged a landmark in India’s conservation history. It was the country’s first successfully implemented genetic rescue of an isolated tiger population. The four-year-old big cat was translocated from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari reserve along with another tigress in 2024. Once released into the unfamiliar habitat far from home, young Zeenat unexpectedly went on a three-week journey that took her across three states, leaving forest staff on tenterhooks. It was eventually captured in West Bengal’s Bankura district, brought back and kept in a soft enclosure before being released again. Under a carefully-designed plan and 24x7 surveillance by a dedicated team, Zeenat felt comfortable enough to settle down in Similipal and find companionship over the next year. Now with a litter of four, she might have revived Odisha’s only tiger-bearing habitat by diversifying the gene pool.
The outcome is more than just a conservation milestone. Tiger re-introductions have been successfully attempted in India in the past, too. Sariska in Rajasthan and Panna in Madhya Pradesh had witnessed population collapses in the early 2000s, but reintroductions revived those populations. In Maharashtra’s Navegaon-Nagzira reserve, translocation from another landscape within the state succeeded in 2024 and is being replicated in the Sahyadri reserve. Similar translocations have borne fruit in the tiger landscapes of central and Shivalik-Gangetic plains, too.
However, Similipal presented a more complex challenge. Delinked from the central tiger landscape, its population remained restricted for decades and shrank at the beginning of the century. Although the numbers grew with improved management, the emergence of the magnificent melanistic tigers revealed a dark truth—inbreeding resulting in a dwindling gene pool. Given the danger it posed, the National Tiger Conservation Authority suggested a supplementation programme and offered support.
Odisha not only showed courage in accepting the risk but also proved that science-led conservation can deliver if administrations back crucial projects. The genetic rescue project also signals a shift in India’s conservation thinking—from saving tigers to ensuring their populations remain genetically resilient, adaptable and ecologically viable in the long term. Similipal offers a conservation template the world could learn from.