Zeenat has added a new destination to her itinerary.

The three-year-old tigress, who had embarked on an arduous journey from Similipal in Odisha, entered Bengal on Friday after spending 12 days in Jharkhand's Chakulia.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer Saba Alam Ansari said the tigress had entered the Belpahari forest range in Bengal's Jhargram district.

“The joint team of Jharkhand and Odisha have been constantly tracking the movement of the tigress and on Friday morning its location was found in the Belpahari forest range of Jhargram district of Bengal. We have already informed our Bengal counterparts and the Odisha team has moved to Bengal. Till 6.30pm, the tigress’s location was in the Belpahari forest range,” Ansari said.

Jhargram subdivisional magistrate Shubrajit Gupta also confirmed Zeenat's entry into Belpahari.

“In the morning, I was informed by the forest department that the location of the tigress was at Binpur in Belpahari forest division. The forest team of Jhargram is coordinating with Odisha,” Gupta said.

Attempts to contact the divisional forest officer of Jhargram, Umar Imam, on his official mobile number failed to elicit any response till the filing of this report.

Sources in the Chakulia forest range said Zeenat had been camping at Rajabasa and had killed a buffalo and eaten a portion of it last Saturday.

“Suddenly on Friday, it moved in a linear direction towards Bengal and entered the bordering Belpahari forest range which is nearly 20km from Chakulia,” said the source who was also part of the team tracking the tigress in Chakulia.

Zeenat was brought from Maharashtra to the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) last month to improve its genetic diversity and was released into the wild on November 24. She strayed into the forests of the neighbouring East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand in the first week of December.

The East Singhbhum district administration had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 in the Chakulia forest range to prevent villagers from venturing out after dusk.

The tigress had kept a 40-member forest department team comprising officials from Jharkhand and Odisha on the tenterhooks because of its "elusive" nature. A tranquilisation attempt on Thursday morning had failed.

Ansari had told The Telegraph a few days ago that the tigress had moved out of the reserve in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district and entered the Chakulia forest range.

"The forest teams of both states are tracking the movement of the radio-collared tigress through satellite but it is elusive. The tigress could not be tranquilised. She killed a buffalo calf, which was used as bait at Chiabandi forest, but did not eat it,” Ansari had said.

According to forest officials, the tigress entered Chakulia after crossing over through Ghurabandha earlier this week.

“The team from Odisha have experts and we are assisting them in whatever way possible. We are trying for two options — to help the tigress move back to Similipal or tranquillise and take it to Odisha,” Ansari had told The Telegraph.