Tigress Zeenat continues to be on the move.

The three-year-old reached Purulia’s Bandwan forest on Sunday morning after spending around 48 hours in Jhargram’s Belpahari.

A source said the tigress, who has been roaming from Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve to Jharkhand to the forests of Bengal, has walked around 20km early Sunday morning through the hilly forests to reach Purulia.

“The tigress is currently in the Bandwan forest of Purulia,” said Bidyut Sarkar, the chief conservator of forests (CCF) of the South-East Circle.

Since it left Similipal Tiger Reserve earlier this month, she has extensively travelled in pockets of Jharkhand before entering Bengal on Friday.

A source said the big cat’s latest location is inside the Chirugaru forests, which fall under the Kangsabati South Forest Division in Purulia.

A senior forest official said they had placed goats and buffalo calves as live baits to lure the tigress and tranquillise her ever since she entered Bengal, but the animal has been
cunningly avoiding the baits.

During her stay in Jharkhand, Zeenat killed one of the baits — a buffalo calf — and then fled without eating the prey.

She may have sensed that humans were tracking her.

Foresters trying to track down Zeenat — for her own safety as well as to prevent any human-animal conflict — are in a fix.

“The landscape of Jhargram’s Belpahari is similar to Purulia’s Bandwan, where Zeenat is currently located. The terrain is hilly, with potential for many hideouts. So, it is no easy task to tranquillise the tigress,” said a senior forest official.

Foresters said that Jungle Mahal forests, be they Jhargram or Purulia, are not ideal habitats for tigers.

“Food sources inside these forests are limited,” said a senior forest official monitoring Zeenat’s movements.

“One good thing is that Zeenat is avoiding humans, but still we are alerting villagers to stay indoors, especially after dusk,” he added.

Multiple sources said that the 2018 incident in Jhargram’s Lalgarh, when a tiger was killed by a group of villagers, is haunting them.

After the tiger was killed in 2018, the state forest department was strongly criticised for failing to protect the national animal.

That is why the entire department has put its best foot forward to catch Zeenat.

“Our challenge is to capture the tigress unharmed. She is three years old and energetic. We are afraid that any desperate move could harm her,” said the source.

Senior foresters from Bankura, Panchet and Jhargram have also been asked to watch Zeenat’s movements so as to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

“Zeenat has a radio collar on. Signals are showing specific areas, and we are placing baits for her accordingly,” said a senior forest official who has worked extensively in the Sunderbans and is a part of Mission Zeenat.