BHUBANESWAR : Recaptured after escaping the Similipal landscape in December, tigress Zeenat has now completed three months in enclosure in the tiger reserve.
With the tiger supplementation committee yet to take a decision on its rerelease into the wild, officials said the big cat is now spending time in Boma, a large enclosure in the core area of South Similipal in STR. The tigress was shifted to a two hectare enclosure, following its capture and shifting from Bankura district in West Bengal, on January 1.
Brought from the Tadoba landscape of Maharashtra as part of a tiger supplementation programme in Similipal, Zeenat was kept in a smaller enclosure of around one hectare in South Similipal for nearly two and half months after its recapture, and was relocated to Boma, a bigger enclosure of around nine hectare land a fortnight back.
STR authorities said the enclosure has been designed in such a way that a prey entering it would not be able to escape. This will allow Zeenat to hunt her prey in a larger area, and keep her wild instincts intact during her stay in the enclosure.
“The big cat will spend time in the enclosure until the supplementation committee takes any decision of its release into Similipal landscape again,” they added.
While STR authorities had earlier said that the committee is waiting for the estrous cycle of the tigress, the period when it would be receptive to mating, to release it into the wild, sources said the Forest department is also exercising extra caution to ensure it doesn’t venture out of the Similipal landscape again.
The tigress had kept forest officials of three states - Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal - on their toes for 23 days following its exit from STR north on December 7.