If You Don’t Have Space…: Upset Over Zeenat’s Return, Mamata Banerjee Hits Out At Odisha

Kolkata/Bhubaneswar: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her displeasure over return of tigress Zeenat, sedated and captured from a forest in West Bengal’s Bankura on December 29 last year, to Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha.

Banerjee said the life of people in Bengal was disrupted with the big cat entering the state. “Five districts (of West Bengal) were practically locked down at that time. People could not leave their homes and schools had to be closed. Our forest department officials worked overnight to nab the tigress but it was taken away and released in water,” she said on Monday.

Three-year-old Zeenat was introduced to Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra on November 14 last year to strengthen the reserve’s gene pool. She left the reserve on December 8 and covered over 300 km across Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal in search of new territory before being tranquillised near Gosaindihi village of Bankura district.

The Bengal CM also alleged that the Odisha government was unable to protect its wildlife like tigers. “Another tiger has been spotted today. We can’t send our officials to catch a tiger each time they decide to release one. The Odisha government should send their teams to rescue tigers that stray into the state and not blame Bengal. I have told the Chief Secretary to speak to the Odisha government in this regard. We are eager to keep the tiger. But I must think about human beings also. They have suffered from straying of the tigress recently,” she said.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority had then questioned Bengal’s decision to transport Zeenat to Alipore zoo and asked it to immediately send the tigress back to Simlipal.

Taking a jibe at Odisha, she further said Odisha may send the big cats “permanently” to West Bengal if there is space crunch. “We have a tiger reserve and a rescue centre.”

Though currently there are no tigers in any Jangalmahal district, forest officials in Purulia are on alert after pugmarks were reportedly spotted near Jharkhand’s Dalma sanctuary. An official in Jharkhand, however, said they are yet to get camera trap images of the big cat from these areas, the TOI reported.