Kolkata: Ahead of the Global Tiger Day on July 29, two tiger rescue teams were felicitated in the city on Friday.
While one of the teams led the massive operation to rescue tigress Zeenat that kept foresters on their toes for 21 days after it entered the state from the neighbouring Odisha last Dec, the other team, from Sundarbans Raidighi range, captured a tiger at Nagenabad in South 24 Parganas forest division after it entered human habitation and injured a member of the quick response team — Ganesh Shyamal — this Feb. Society for Heritage and Ecological researches (SHER) that organised the event also felicitated Dipankar Porel, Anujit Basu, Suman Chakraborty and Sabitri Shannigrahi for their work on rescue-rehabilitation, human-wildlife conflict and conservation of native medicinal plants. "It is Kolkata's Tiger Day where we pay tribute to foot soldiers who protect the ecosystem," said Joydip Kundu of SHER.
While Prof Ratanlal Brahmachari honour is handed over to the field staff, Padma Shri PK Sen Memorial Citizens' felicitation is given to individuals, organizations working for wildlife conservation.
Tigress Zeenat's 21-day hide-and-seek with forest officials of three states since straying out of Similipal in Odisha on Dec 8 came to a close on Dec 29 when she was tranquillised and captured in a village of Bengal's Bankura after five failed attempts since Dec 28 afternoon. Zeenat's walk on the wild side took her on a nearly 300km journey through Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal as forest personnel tracking her tried every possible strategy to keep her from entering human habitation.
During the Nagenabad incident, the Sundarbans team not only rescued Shyamal, but also set up cages and cordoned the area to capture the tiger safely. It was later released in a forest. The event was graced by wildlife filmmaker, photographer and conservationist Kalyan Varma, who shared stories behind his films. His recent documentary, Project Tiger, was also screened.