The tiger that left Bengal's territory last Monday returned to the state's forest jurisdiction on Friday, prompting foresters to adopt a "watch-and-wait" policy.

This stand is unlike what they took with tigress Zeenat, who had come to Bengal from Odisha, and was tranquillised and captured ahead of the New Year.

The male tiger, around 12 years old, is now in Bankura.

"This tiger is continuously moving from one place to another, so we have decided to monitor its movements and wait for at least a few more days. If the royal Bengal tiger's stay in south Bengal becomes a human-animal conflict issue, we will revisit our decision based on the developments on the ground," said S. Kulandaivel, chief conservator of forests (CCF) of the Western Circle.

The tiger had first entered the Belpahari forest in Jhargram on January 12, presenting a fresh challenge to the foresters, shortly after they successfully captured and sent tigress Zeenat, who had escaped from Odisha's Simlipal Tiger Reserve, back there.

After roaming various forests in Jhargram and Purulia, particularly following the path that three-year-old Zeenat had travelled, the tiger last Monday left Bengal and entered the Dalma sanctuary, which falls under Jharkhand's Ghatshila forest range.

The tiger's departure to the neighbouring state’s territory had been a source of relief to foresters in south Bengal, who had been busy handling big cats for the last one-and-a-half months in the Jungle Mahal forests, a landscape that is not a usual habitat for tigers.

That relief proved to be short-lived.

"We always had a suspicion that the male tiger could return to our territory and that is why we set up trap cameras along the forest border with Jharkhand to monitor its movement. Finally, our fear became a reality (on Friday, with the tiger's return to Bengal), resulting in sleepless nights for a fresh round of monitoring," said a senior forester in south Bengal.

The foresters explained that the decision to delay capturing the tiger was for two main reasons.

First, it is an expensive exercise, as the department must hire many labourers to work on the ground. The department spent nearly ₹30 lakh from the state's exchequer to capture and tranquillise Zeenat.

"It may come to a point where we will have to decide to capture the male tiger, adding additional costs to the state's budget, if it begins to stay in our territory for an extended period. But for now, based on our observations, the animal’s behaviour is one of continuous loitering. We now have to monitor whether it moves back to the Jharkhand forest," said a forester tracking the tiger, which, unlike Zeenat, does not have a radio collar.

The other main reason for adopting the wait-and-wait policy toward this tiger is the challenge of deploying a large number of foresters, which would mean ignoring other priorities such as monitoring elephants, needed to avert human-animal conflicts in Bengal.

Currently, there are nearly 185 elephants in four Jungle Mahal districts — Bankura, Jhargram, West Midnapore and Purulia. The forest department must keep track of their current locations and monitor if they are approaching human settlements. Dozens of forester teams are required to track elephants.

"If we try to capture the tiger, we need to deploy at least 300 foresters daily. However, monitoring the tiger's location and alerting people in nearby villages require fewer resources," said a forest department source.

Kulandaivel also said that attempts to capture the tiger right now might disturb it.