Success for inter-state tiger translocation as Zeenat gives birth to 4 cubs

Bhubaneswar: In a major success for the country’s inter-state tiger translocation project, Zeenat, a 4.5-year-old Royal Bengal Tiger brought from Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, has given birth to four cubs in Similipal Tiger Reserve.

The tigress was brought to Similipal — home to the rare melanistic tigers — in 2024 to ensure a new genetic pool, and the birth of the cubs have achieved its primary target.

“It is a significant development for Similipal as the tigress, which had once dispersed, settled in the reserve and gave birth to cubs that can change the course of conservation breeding of big cats. The birth of cubs is like a seed for creation of a new gene pool. Now, their survival is important,” forest minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia told TOI.

Similipal authorities came to know from camera trap images that Zeenat has given birth to four cubs as the tigress was seen shifting the cubs from one place to another.

Basking in the success of the translocation project, CM Mohan Charan Majhi wrote on X, “Special measures have been taken by the forest department to ensure the safety of mother and cubs and their movements are continuously being monitored.”

Considering the failure of the previous translocation in 2018 when tigress Sundari and tiger MB2 were brought from Madhya Pradesh and introduced to Satkosia, authorities at Similipal were very cautious about Zeenat and kept constant watch on its movements through satellite collar as well as very high frequency signals. Camera trap images were also under scanner.

“We had been tracking through the radio collar and found that the tigress had confined itself to a very limited area. We were not sure, but it was an indication,” chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha said. Considering the fact that the cubs are three weeks old (as estimated by their size), the tigress may have conceived in Jan, Jha added.

Jha said interstate translocation of tigers and successful execution has become a story of resilience and teamwork. “The tiger translocation project envisaged for increasing the genetic diversity of Similipal tigers has achieved its primary objective by obtaining successful offspring. The mating of Tadoba Tiger Reserve female and Similipal Tiger Reserve male will generate offspring with high genetic diversity and will be helpful in securing the future of Similipal tiger population,” Jha said.

Former PCCF (wildlife) Susanta Nanda said the birth of the cubs to tigress Zeenat is not just another addition to India’s growing tiger population. “It marks the culmination of one of the country’s most ambitious and closely watched conservation interventions — a bold attempt to rescue a tiger landscape that was slowly drifting towards genetic isolation,” Nanda said.