Tigress Zeenat, under observation at the Alipore zoo hospital following her capture in Bankura on Sunday, was “outwardly stable”, said a senior forest official on Monday.

“Zeenat is able to stand up on her feet and move around the cage. She is outwardly stable. She has not eaten anything yet. But that is not unusual. She has had sufficient food in the wild,” Debal Ray, the chief wildlife warden of Bengal, told Metro on Monday evening.

Sources in the Bengal forest department said Zeenat would be sent to Similipal Tiger Reserve once declared fit.

Ray said the decision will be made in a couple of days. “She will be kept under observation for some more time. We will decide on her destination in a day or two.”

Zeenat was darted in the forests of Bankura around 4pm on Sunday, close to four weeks since she left Similipal Tiger Reserve. The three-year-old tigress covered hundreds of kilometres through the forests of Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal, often close to human habitation, as scores of foresters spent sleepless nights.

She reached the Alipore zoo hospital a little before 12.30am on Monday.

“The tigress that our foresters captured yesterday with the help of the administration and the common people (of Bankura) was the result of complete coordination.
The tigress is well and fit,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at Dumurjala Helipad on her way back from Sandeshkhali on Monday.

Sources said Zeenat was a tad dehydrated when she came to Alipore. “She has had water and her temperature, pulse, appetite, energy and behaviour are being monitored by a team of vets and keepers,” an official said.

A veterinarian earlier posted at the Alipore zoo, who retired in 2015, said: “The tiger evaded capture for a long time before being darted. All this and then spending a long time in a cage are bound to cause a lot of stress. But she is young and if there is no hidden injury, she should be normal in some time,” said the vet.

He also cautioned against keeping the tiger in confinement for too long. “She will then find it difficult to cope once released in the wild.”

The effect of the dart bullet lasts around 45 minutes and 90 minutes if the dose is strong, said the vet.

Forest officials said around 2pm on Sunday, the first dart was fired at Zeenat but it failed to put her to sleep for long. She got up soon and began moving around.

The tranquilising team waited for almost two hours before darting her again, this time for good.

“Tranquiliser guns typically have a dart that contains a syringe kind of canister filled with the tranquilising agent, usually a cocktail of xylazine and ketamine drugs,” said a retired forest official.

“The dosage of the sedative is adjusted according to the type and body weight of the animal,” he said.

Zeenat had been brought to Similipal on November 14 from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as part of a drive to strengthen the gene pool in the Odisha reserve.