Prakash Chand Gogineni, field director of Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, still remembers the thrill of that moment he witnessed on May 28. A camera trap captured a rare sight of a tigress named Zeenat carrying her four cubs one by one in her mouth. Gogineni saw these pictures in his simple office in Baripada, the district headquarters of Mayurbhanj, where Similipal is located. He immediately knew he was experiencing a watershed moment in India’s wildlife history.
Zeenat is one of two tigers brought to Similipal from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve through translocation in 2024. Sushant Nanda, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Odisha, recalls, “Similipal was heading towards genetic decline, mainly due to inbreeding between big cats. While the tiger population was stabilising, the increasing number of pseudo-melanistic tigers in the reserve had become a matter of concern.”
Pseudo-melanistic tigers (often called black tigers) are a rare variant of the Bengal tiger, distinguished by a genetic mutation that causes their black stripes to widen and merge, giving them a dramatically darker coat where the golden yellow flecks are barely visible.
It was during Nanda’s tenure that both the tigresses were introduced to Similipal. He says Zeenat’s transfer to Similipal was a necessity, not an experiment. “Maharashtra agreed to release nine tigers (seven females and two males) in three phases over five years,” he says.
Similipal, from which it takes its name Simul or silk cotton tree, is a 2,750 square kilometer UNESCO biosphere reserve. In 1973, the Government of India declared it a tiger reserve.
At present Gogineni says that his priority is the safety of the tigress and her cubs. “This can be seen as India’s first successful inter-state tiger translocation from a reserve with surplus population to a reserve with low density,” says the 48-year-old Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, who has been tracking Zeenat for 20 months.
“The tigers were brought to Similipal where breeding females were already present, a scenario that had not happened before,” explains Gogineni. They believe this development could serve as a fascinating case study for future efforts to revive tiger populations.
genetic decoding
This is Odisha’s second attempt at translocation – a process of bringing tigers to a new habitat. In 2018, the state brought two tigers from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to its Satkosia Tiger Reserve. It is believed that tigers from central India are faster adapted to the terrain and ecosystem of Odisha than those from distant states. The operation went wrong. One of the tigers was hunted; The other was returned to his home state due to resistance from the local people.
Earlier, translocations in India were aimed at reviving tiger populations within the states. Under the leadership of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan saw India’s first successful tiger reintroduction in 2008. In Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, NTCA and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) organized a similar program in 2009. In both cases, the tigers came from within the states.
In 2021, molecular ecologist Uma Ramakrishnan, also a professor at the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, and her co-researchers found that Similipal’s tiger population remained small and isolated with minimal genetic exchange with other landscapes.
In a genetic analysis of tiger populations presented in PNAS, a multidisciplinary scientific journal established in 1914, he and his team found that “the population of Similipal is small and isolated.” In the paper ‘High frequency of otherwise rare phenotypes in a small and isolated tiger population’, the team found that about 37% of Similipal’s tigers were pseudo-melanistic. “Small and isolated populations have low genetic variation…putting them at risk of extinction,” the paper says. This makes the population more vulnerable to diseases.
“These factors can also increase the genetic load (damaging genes) in the population. Translocation aims to reverse all this. For the long-term survival of a species like the tiger, genetic diversity becomes the basis,” Gogineni asserts.
The 2014 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE), a quadrennial survey led by NTCA and WII, recorded a sharp decline in the tiger population in Similipal to only five individuals (one male and four females). Only one of them exhibited the pseudo-melanistic coat pattern, making its prevalence 20%. After this, in 2018 and 2022, AITE indicated an improvement in the number of tigers from five to eight and then to 16. However, the increase was accompanied by worrying genetic drift: pseudo-melanistic tigers increased to 37.5% in 2018 and 43.75% in 2022. The 2023 All Odisha Tiger Estimation, a state-level survey and census conducted by the Odisha Forest Department, found that almost half of Similipal’s tiger population displayed pseudo-melanism. 2024 AITE has increased the concern by giving this figure as 59.37%.
Nanda says that it was not easy to bring tigers from other states. He recalls, “With a comprehensive report detailing pseudo-melanism in tigers, a strong prey base and an enhanced patrolling system in Similipal, we approached the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. After much insistence, the Ministry agreed and got NTCA approval in May 2024.”
From Maharashtra to Odisha
The approval paved the way for the transfer. 2.5-year-old Jamuna was released into a specially designed soft enclosure in a grassland in Jenabil, southern Similipal, in October 2024.
Two weeks later, on 15 November, Tadoba-Andhari’s second tigress Zeenat, then three years old, was released early in the morning into an enclosure in the tiger grassland at Chahala in northern Similipal.
Learning from the failures at Satkosia, Similipal authorities made extensive preparations. A team of two Deputy Directors (IFS officers) led by Gogineni, a veterinarian and a biologist along with 15 tracking personnel were sent to Tadoba for special training. Tracking teams were trained in very high frequency (VHF) telemetry and other surveillance systems.
The Jamuna made its way towards the Kuldiha forest, which lies outside the main area of Similipal. She has remained there since then. However, Zeenat visited three states: Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Nanda says it is now considered one of the most intensive finds of a single tiger in India.
Zeenat was kept in a soft enclosure for 10 days. Just three days after being released into the forest, it started moving in a north-westerly direction. Ten days later, he was spotted in the Musabani range near Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. By then, Odisha had already deployed a special team to tranquillise him and bring him back to Similipal.
The operation to track and recapture Zeenat lasted for more than a month and involved around 200 personnel, including senior IFS officers, biologists, veterinarians and tracking teams. The teams chased Zeenat for about 300 kilometres.
“From day one we realized that Zeenat was both stubborn and intelligent. She would do what she wanted. We couldn’t force her to react,” says Swaroop Phulontan, wildlife biologist at Similipal Tiger Reserve and a key member of the tracking team.
“We had never experienced a chase like this in our lives,” Fulton recalls.
“On a few occasions Zeenat was right behind us. The tracking antenna showed zero gain, meaning there was virtually no distance between her and us. At times, it registered three to six gains, indicating she was within 12 feet,” he explains.
As Zeenat moved across the states, the operation demanded close inter-state coordination. Biologists and veterinarians from all three states had to remain inside camouflaged vehicles for long periods of time, often in sub-zero temperatures at night. Sometimes, they would be mounted on elephants or hoisted by earthmoving machines to get a clear line of sight.
The tigress was finally tranquilized on 29 December near a dam area in the Ranibandh range in Bankura district of West Bengal. Gogineni says the West Bengal government was reluctant to hand over Zeenat to Odisha, but he and the NTCA teams convinced the authorities and the tigress was brought to Similipal through a green corridor, where wildlife veterinarians and biologists were keeping a close eye on her health while administering sedatives.
Once Zeenat reached Similipal, officials kept her under 24-hour surveillance inside a soft enclosure spread over 7 hectares. “As the days passed, local resident male T12 visited the enclosure and we were able to record their interactions via a bispectral thermal camera (capturing both images and heat),” says Gogineni.
After giving birth to four cubs, Zeenat held one in her mouth inside Odisha’s largest biosphere reserve, Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj district, where she was shifted from Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra in 2024. Photo: Special Arrangement
Zeenat was released into the wild in April 2025. “Zeenat’s mating with T12 did not produce any cubs. The tigress later changed her territory twice and finally mated with T45 in January this year and gave birth to four cubs in May,” says Gogineni.
Fantastic Four!
Nanda says India’s tiger conservation program is facing the challenge of habitat connectivity. “In that respect, Zeenat broke the barrier of dissatisfaction in habitation.” He further said, now 25% of the cubs in Similipal have a diverse gene pool and it will get stronger in three-four years if Zeenat’s cubs survive.
Gogineni is also optimistic. “Currently, there are 32 tigers in Similipal. As soon as the tiger population in Similipal reaches the capacity of 75, the tigers from the reserve will move towards the forests of Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Angul districts in the south and perhaps Satkosia Tiger Reserve,” he says.
To the north, the tigers would scatter throughout the forests of the Chhota Nagpur plateau. “This could potentially repopulate tigers in the Saranda forests, Palamu Tiger Reserve, Jhargram forests and beyond in the Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve. The movement of males will happen quickly, but the movement of females may take longer,” says Gogineni.
This inter-state tiger translocation program has achieved its medium term objective. Now, Odisha is awaiting the decision of a high-level committee on the transfer of the remaining seven of the nine tigers to Maharashtra. Of these, six (five females, one male) were to be shifted to Similipal, while the other three (two males and one female) were to be shifted to Debrigadh Wildlife Sanctuary.
If Jamuna comes into estrus and Zeenat becomes ready to mate in the next 18 months, the tiger population can increase naturally. In that case, the proposed transfer of seven more tigers from Tadoba may be reconsidered.
satyasundar.b@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew and Amarjot Kaur
