For 24 days, Zeenat had led her pursuers in three states into a merry dance, evading every attempt to entice or ensnare. She was finally conquered in Bengal on Sunday, taking one tranquilliser dart in her stride before yielding to a second.

The three-year-old tigress was captured by foresters in Bankura, 280km as the crow flies from Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve whose confines she had escaped on December 5.

Over the next three-and-a-half weeks, she would have covered hundreds of kilometres zigzagging through the forests of Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal, often close to human habitation, as scores of foresters spent sleepless nights.

She was successfully darted and tranquillised in the Banpukri forest of Bankura at 3.56pm on Sunday.

S. Kulandaivel, chief conservator of forests (western circle), lauded the “relentless efforts” foresters had made since the big cat entered Bengal on December 20. Zeenat “will be observed for the next 24 hours at Alipore Zoo”,he said.

Similipal field director Pradip Chand Gogineni, who was in Bankura during the tranquillising operation, said the tigress was likely to be sent back to Similipal after the observation period atAlipore Zoo.

“I am with the tigress now…. Once she comes back to Similipal, we will keep her inside a soft enclosure for a few days and observe her,”he said.

After entering Bengal via the Belpahari forests of Jhargram, Zeenat had travelled from one district to another.

“We were very careful about her safety as she started roaming near human habitations. We had to catch her unharmed,” said a senior forest official who had been involved in the rescue operation since Day One.

“We had a bitter memory from 2018 when villagers killed a roaming tiger in Lalgarh, Jhargram. Now, we are relieved.”

Crowds while foresters take Zeenat into the rescue van.

Through her 24-day odyssey, Zeenat had smartly sidestepped all the foresters’ baits in the form of goat and buffalo. Multiple measures were taken to dart her after she entered Purulia on December 22,foresters said.

But all went in vain as the undulating terrain kept cutting off links to the chip implanted in her body – much as mobile networks face disruptions in hilly areas – and made tracking her difficult.

Hopes rose on Friday when Zeenat entered aforest near Mukutmanipur, Bankura, where the landwas flatter.

The foresters put up a nylon-net fence -- its perimeter stretching several kilometres --- around the area the tigress was in and began closing in on her. Around 2am on Sunday, the first dartwas fired.

“But it was unsuccessful,” a senior forest official said. Zeenat was hit but, apparently, the chemical didn’t get injected properly. She slept for around five minutes and then got up and beganmoving again.

“We could not risk darting her again before making sure there was no (lingering) effect of the chemical from the first dart (as reflected) in her body language, else she could have died,” the official said. “We waited till nearly 4pm.”

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 theOdisha reserve.

Shortly after her tranquillisation, chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated Bengal’s forest officials.

“My heartiest congratulations to the forest officials of West Bengal on the successful rescue of the tigress - Zeenat. My sincere gratitude to the district administration, police, panchayat functionaries and the local people for their invaluable support and collaboration in this remarkable effort,” she wrote on herX handle.

She also posted a short video that showed a tranquillised Zeenat being lifted onto a stretcher and carried to a vehicle.