Sacred groves in Zeenat's enclosure: HC notice to MoTA, Odisha govt

THE Orissa High Court has issued notices to the Centre as well as the state government on a petition seeking its intervention against inclusion of "Jayara," the sacred groves and burial ground of the Munda tribal community, in the enclosure constructed for tigress Zeenat in the Similipal tiger reserve (STR).

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The single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi issued the notices on Monday on a petition filed by Nandi Ho and two other members of Munda community of Jamunagarh. Jamunagarh, a part of Gudgudia gram panchayat, comes under STR in Mayurbhanj district. Zeenat, translocated from Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as part of a tiger supplementation project last year, had moved out from Similipal to Jharkhand and then to Bengal. On December 28, she was recaptured in West Bengal and brought back on Jan 1. The tigress was initially lodged in a small enclosure but later shifted to a larg