‘Killed illegally to satisfy a hunter's lust for blood’: 'Man-eater' tigress Avni cremated, activists cry foul

Tigress Avni, believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 13 people in Maharashtra in the past two years, was shot dead in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra on Friday night as part of an operation. 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. The Forest Department Friday carried out the operation in Borati with the help of sharp-shooter Asgar Ali.

(Photo: Facebook/Save the Tiger)

T1 or Avni was 5 years old and had 2 cubs. She was first spotted in the forests of Yavatmal in 2012. The Forest department says the priority now is to locate her two cubs, who are a year old and will not survive without their mother.

(Photo: AFP)

Wildlife activists have alleged that several norms were flouted in the operation and have also raised multiple questions over the manner in which she was killed on Friday night. The major bone of contention among conservationists is that controversial Hyderabad-based hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan was enlisted for the operation, despite protests. His son, Asghar, shot Avni at close range. 

PETA India said the tiger Avni was killed "illegally to satisfy a hunter's lust for blood", in contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. 
"Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter's lust for blood, plain and simple, in possible contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act and the guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority. She may not have died instantly but slowly, through pain and blood loss, and likely in front of her now orphaned and vulnerable cubs," said Meet Ashar, Lead Emergency Response Coordinator, PETA India.

Ashar said "this matter must be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime". 

"Whether sanctioned by the state or not, nobody can be above the law. This is a dark day for our nation and we must hang out heads in shame now, and again if this killing goes unpunished," Ashar added.

(Photo: Facebook/Save the Tiger)

AK Mishra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife), told DNA that Avni was shot at close range near Borati village on Borati-Warud-Ralegaon road. “At around 11pm, we received a message about presence of the tigress at a village bazaar. Our team reached there and shot a dart, she charged at them. So they had to shoot her from 8-10 meters at a point-blank range in self-defence as they were in an open gypsy,” he said. 

Sources say Avni crossed the road and waited for a while before charging at the team after being darted. “They could have attempted to dart and tranquilise her again in this intervening period,” a source said.

(Photo: Facebook/Save the Tiger)

The forest department had declared tigress Avni, a ‘man-eater’. The Maharashtra Forest Department had issued shoot-at-sight orders against the tigress. The question whether the tigress should be tranquillized or shot and killed reached before the Supreme Court in September. The Supreme Court had said Avni could be shot at sight, which prompted a flurry of online petitions seeking pardon for the tigress. 

(Photo: Facebook/Save the Tiger)