Similipal’s Black Tigers get help
Prakash Chand Gogineni, field director of Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve, is still coming to terms with the thrill of the moment he witnessed on May 28. A camera caught a rare glimpse of a tigress named Zeenat gently carrying her four cubs one by one in her mouth. Gogineni saw the images in his modest office in Baripada, the district headquarters of Mayurbhanj, where Similipal is located. He knew immediately that he was experiencing a pivotal moment in the history of Indian wildlife.
Zeenat is one of two tigers introduced to Similipal from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve through translocation in 2024. “Similipal was headed for genetic collapse, largely due to inbreeding between the big cats. While the tiger population stagnated, the growing number of pseudo-melanistic tigers in the reserve became the concern of Odisha’s former Chief Forest Constable. (Wildlife) Susanta Nanda.
Pseudo-melanistic tigers (often called black tigers) are a rare variant of the Bengal tiger, characterized by a genetic mutation that causes their black stripes to widen and merge, giving them a dramatically dark coat with barely a hint of golden yellow.
It was during Nanda’s tenure that these two tigresses were introduced to Similipal. He says that Zeenat’s translocation to Similipal was a necessity, not an experiment. “Maharashtra has agreed to part with nine tigers (seven females and two males) in three phases over five years,” he says.
Similipal, which derives its name from simul or silk cotton, is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve covering an area of 2,750 square kilometers. In 1973, the Indian government declared it a tiger reserve.
For now, Gogineni says his priority is the safety of the tigress and her cubs. “This can be considered India’s first successful interstate translocation of a tiger from an overpopulated reserve to a low-density reserve,” says a 48-year-old Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer who has been following Zeenat for 20 months.
“The tigers were brought to Similipalu where breeding females already existed, a scenario that had not occurred before,” Gogineni points out. He believes the development could serve as a compelling case study for future efforts to revive the tiger population.
Genetic decoding
This is Odisha’s second attempt at translocation – the process of bringing tigers to a new environment. In 2018, the state brought two tigers from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to its Satkosia Tiger Reserve. Central Indian tigers were believed to adapt to the terrain and ecosystem of Orissa more quickly than tigers in more distant states. The operation collapsed. One of the tigers was poached; the other was returned to his home state due to opposition from the local population.
Earlier, translocations in India were aimed at reviving tiger populations in states. Led by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), India’s first successful reintroduction of tigers took place in Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan in 2008. In the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) conducted a similar program in 2009. In both cases, the tigers came from the States.
In 2021, molecular ecologist Uma Ramakrishnan, who is also a professor at the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, and her co-researchers found that the Similipal tiger population remained small and isolated with minimal genetic exchange with other landscapes.
In her genetic analysis of the tiger population, presented in PNAS, a multidisciplinary scientific journal founded in 1914, she and her team found that “Similipal has a small and isolated population.” In the paper, “High Frequency of an Otherwise Rare Phenotype in a Small and Isolated Tiger Population,” the team found that approximately 37% of Similipal’s tigers were pseudomelanistic. “Small and isolated populations have low genetic variability … making them vulnerable to extinction,” the paper said. This also makes the population more susceptible to disease.
“These factors can also lead to a higher genetic load (harmful genes) in the population. The aim of the translocation was to reverse all this. For the long-term survival of a species like the tiger, genetic diversity becomes the basis,” Gogineni points out.
The 2014 All India Tiger Estimation (AITE), a four-year survey conducted by the NTCA and WII, recorded a drastic decline in the tiger population in Similipal to just five individuals (one male and four females). Only one of them showed a pseudomelanistic coat pattern, its prevalence was 20%. Subsequent AITEs in 2018 and 2022 indicated recoveries of five to eight and then 16 tigers. But the rise has been accompanied by a worrying genetic shift: pseudomelanistic tigers have increased to 37.5% in 2018 and 43.75% in 2022. A 2023 estimate of all tigers, a state-level survey and census conducted by the Odisha Forest Department found that nearly half of the tigers showed pseudo-melanism. The AITE for 2024 raised further concerns, putting the figure at 59.37%.
Nanda says it was not easy to get tigers from other states. “We approached the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change with a comprehensive report detailing pseudo-melanism in tigers, a strong prey base and an increased patrolling system in Similipal. After much persuasion, the ministry agreed and NTCA approval followed in May 2024,” he recalls.
From Maharashtra to Odisha
The approval cleared the way for the relocation. Jamuna, 2.5 years old, was released in October 2024 in a specially designed soft enclosure in a meadow in South Similipal’s Jenabil.
Two weeks later, on November 15, Zeenat, the second Tadoba-Andhari tigress, then three years old, was released in the early hours of the Tiger meadow enclosure at Chahala in North Similipal.
The Similipal authorities learned from the failures in Satkosia and made extensive preparations. A team consisting of two deputy directors (IFS officers), 15 monitoring staff along with a veterinarian and a biologist led by Gogineni was sent to Tadoba for specialized training. Monitoring teams were trained in very high frequency (VHF) telemetry and other monitoring systems.
Jamuna reached the Kuldiha forest, which lies outside the core of Similipalu. She has remained there ever since. However, Zeenat passed through three states: Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. This is now considered one of India’s most intensive attempts for a single tiger, says Nanda.
Zeenat was kept in a soft enclosure for 10 days. Just three days after being released into the wild, it began moving in a northwesterly direction. Ten days later, she was spotted in the Musabani range near Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. By then, Odisha had already deployed a special team to tranquilize her and bring her back to Similipal.
The operation to track and recapture Zeenat lasted over a month and involved nearly 200 personnel, including senior IFS officers, biologists, veterinarians and surveillance teams. The teams chased Zeenat for nearly 300 kilometers.
“From day one, we felt that Zeenat was headstrong and intelligent. She would do exactly what she set her mind to. We just couldn’t force a response from her,” says Swarup Fullonton, a wildlife biologist at Similipal Tiger Reserve and a key member of the tracking team.
“We’ve never had a chase like this in our lives,” Fullonton recalls.
“On several occasions, Zeenat was right behind us. The tracking antenna showed zero gain, meaning there was virtually no distance between her and us. At times she recorded three to six gains, meaning she was within 12 feet,” he describes.
As Zeenat moved across states, the operation required close interstate coordination. Biologists and veterinarians from all three states endured long hours in camouflaged vehicles, often in sub-zero night temperatures. Sometimes they climbed on elephants or were lifted by earthmoving machines to get a clear view.
Finally, on December 29, the tigress was euthanized near a dam area in the Ranibandh range of West Bengal’s Bankura district. Gogineni says the West Bengal government was reluctant to hand over Zeenat to Odisha, but he and NTCA teams convinced the authorities and the tigress was brought to Similipal through the Green Corridor, with veterinarians and wildlife biologists closely monitoring her health and administering sedation.
Once Zeenat arrived in Similipal, authorities placed her in a 7-hectare soft enclosure under 24-hour surveillance. Gogineni says, “As the days passed, a local resident male T12 visited the enclosure and we were able to record their interactions using a bispectral thermal camera (capturing both images and heat).”
After giving birth to four cubs, Zeenat carries one in her mouth, inside Orissa’s largest biosphere, the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj district, where she was relocated in 2024 from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Photo: Special arrangement
In April 2025, Zeenat was released into the wild. “Zenat’s mating with T12 did not result in any cubs. The tigress subsequently 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 faces the challenge of habitat connectivity. “In this context, Zeenat broke the barrier of discontinuity in the habitat.” Now, 25% of Similipal’s cubs have a diverse gene pool, and if Zeenat’s cubs survive, they will strengthen within three to four years, he adds.
Gogineni is also optimistic. “Currently there are 32 tigers in Similipal. Once the tiger population in Similipal reaches its carrying capacity of 75, tigers from the reserve will move to forests in Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and further south to Angul areas and possibly Satkosia Tiger Reserve,” he says.
Towards the north, tigers will be scattered in all the forests of the Chota Nagpur plateau. “This can potentially repopulate tigers in the Saranda forests, Palamu Tiger Reserve, Jhargram Forests and further into the Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve. The movement of males will be quick, but females may take longer,” adds Gogineni.
This interstate tiger translocation program has achieved its medium term goal. Now, Odisha is awaiting the decision of a high-level committee to relocate the remaining seven of the nine tigers from Maharashtra. Of these, six (five females, one male) were to be relocated to Similipal, while the other three (two males and one female) to Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary.
If Jamuna comes into heat (in heat) and Zeenat is ready to mate within the next 18 months, the tiger population could grow naturally. In that case, the proposed translocation of seven more tigers from Tadoba may be reconsidered.
satyasundar.b@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew and Amarjot Kaur