Odisha’s tigress Zeenat, who had strayed into the West Bengal forest from the Similipal Tiger Reserve, has been captured in Bankura district and is undergoing treatment at the Alipore Zoo’s veterinary hospital, as per an official statement on Monday. The three-year tigress that has been killing people since the beginning of the month was captured on Sunday afternoon after several attempts of over three weeks to anaesthetise her.
After her arrest, Zeenat was rushed to the Alipore Zoo Vet Hospital late at night; she was examined for health complications. Zoo keepers and Veterinary doctors proceeded to conduct some tests on Monday morning. While she was stressed and traumatized due to the tranquilization and was moving in three states for 11 days, her health was considered stable.
The senior forest official said that the tigress was under a lot of stress after she escaped from the Similipal Tiger Reserve on December 8. In her sojourn through the different regions in the wild for the 21 days, she barely felt enough food because the regions she passed through had no proper population of prey species. She was darted with tranquillizers because the forest department could not physically capture her in any other way. That means she will require more time to recover in a quiet area where nothing can harm her or make her feel even worse.
On arrival at the zoo, Zeenat was offered buffalo meat, which is the normal diet for an adult healthy tiger. But, the official did not quantify how many cups of coffee she consumed. Although she is apparently healthy, the tigress will continue to be monitored and nursed by a veterinary and zoological team of keepers. Their counterparts in Odisha and the department are in touch with them constantly about the situation back in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, but the official wasn’t able to specify when she will be going back there.
Wildlife officials were on the lookout for Zeenat after she fled and traversed several states.
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