A man-eater tigress responsible for the death of 14 people in the Pandharkawda forest in Maharashtra was finally killed on Friday night in Yavatmal after a massive hunt that lasted weeks.
Tigress Avni, believed to have been responsible for the deaths of at least 13 people in Maharashtra in the past two years, was finally killed on Friday night in Yavatmal after a massive hunt that lasted weeks.
Police said the tigress, T1, as she was known officially, was shot dead on Friday night in Yavatmal district of the state as part of an operation.
"Avni was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali, at compartment no 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station," a police official said.
"Avni, who was known in Pandharkawda forest area, had killed 13 people over the last two years in the region," he said.
The post-mortem was in progress at Nagpur's Gorewada Rescue Centre.
For more than three months, Forest Department officials were planning to catch her with the help of latest technology. Trained sniffer dogs, trap cameras, drones and a hang-glider, expert trackers, sharp-shooters and around 200 ground personnel were roped in for the task, he said.
The Forest Department Friday carried out the operation in Borati with the help of sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, he said.
"Urine of another tigress and American perfume was spread in some part of the compartment, following which Avni came by sniffing it," the official said.
"The forest officials initially tried to nab her alive. However, due to dense forest and darkness, they were unable to do so and finally a bullet was fired in which the tigress fell on the spot," he said.
"After she became motionless, forest officials went closer to her and later rushed her to a hospital in Nagpur, where she was declared dead," the official said.
In October, an elephant that was part of a group hunting a man-eating tigress in Maharashtra ran astray overnight and trampled a woman to death.
The forest department had declared tigress Avni, a ‘man-eater’. The Maharashtra Forest Department had issued shoot-at-sight orders against the tigress. The forest department claimed that the six-year-old tigress, along with two of her nine-month-old cubs, had consumed 60 per cent of a human corpse, that had led it to declare her a ‘man-eater’.
The question whether the tigress should be tranquillized or shot and killed reached before the Supreme Court in September. The apex court heard the petitions challenging the Bombay High Court’s recent decision giving a go-ahead to the forest department to implement its order to tranquillize or shoot the tigress.
The Supreme Court had said Avni could be shot at sight, which prompted a flurry of online petitions seeking pardon for the tigress.
The bench, while refusing to interfere with the high court decision, said the forest department would be bound by their own order to tranquilize her first and, in case of failure, shoot her.
The Bombay High Court had on October 16 sought the Maharashtra Forest Department's stand on a plea challenging its steps aimed at killing the tigress.
(With PTI inputs)
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 "Tigress Avni was killed in Yavatmal last night")
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