Maharashtra’s Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Sunday found himself in the dock over the controversial killing of tigress ‘Avni’ in Yavatmal district on Friday night, as a miffed Union Women & Child Development Minister and Animal Rights activist Maneka Gandhi dubbed the tigress’ elimination as “straight case of crime” and virtually rooted for Mungantiwar’s dismissal from the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet.
Terming sharpshooter Shafat Ali Khan whose son killed Avni as “a criminal” known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad, Gandhi said, “I am deeply saddened by the way the tigress Avni has been murdered by a professional anti-national killer at the behest of the Minister in Yavatmal, Maharashtra”.
“This is the third tiger being killed on directions of the Environment and Forest Minister. Earlier, a dozen leopards and 300 wild boars have been killed on his directions. I am shocked that such a person is continuing to hold a ministerial position,” Gandhi said in a strongly worded statement.
After weeks of elaborate and meticulously planned hunt, the elusive tigress T1, better known as Avni of Pandharkawada hills — that had mauled as many as 13 persons to death during the past two years in Yavatmal district in Vidarbha region in Maharashtra — had been shot dead late on Friday night.
Avni, 6, was eliminated by sharpshooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharpshooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan from Hyderabad, at compartment number 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station.
Gandhi, who put out a series of tweets on the incident, said in her statement: “It (the killing) is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite requests from his own forest department and People all over India, Sh Sudhir Mugantiwar, Minister for Environment and Forests, Maharashtra gave orders for the killing”.
Terming Avni’s killing as “illegal”, Gandhi said: “Every time he has used the Hyderabad shooter, Shafat Ali Khan and this time his son has also appeared on the scene illegally to kill the tigress. His son was not authorised to kill. This is patently illegal”.
In one of her tweets put out earlier, Gandhi alluded to Asgar Ali’s controversial sharp-shooter father Shafat Ali Khan. “Shafat Ali Khan has killed 3 tigers, at least 10 leopards, a few elephants and 300 wild boar in Chandrapur, #Maharashtra. He is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in #Hyderabad,” the minister tweeted.
“I fail to understand why a State Government should even bother about such a man let alone hire his services for illegal and inhuman acts,” Gandhi tweeted.
“Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquilise, capture and quarantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter has killed her on his own under direct orders of Sh Mungantiwar. The tigress was a mother. Now her two cubs will also die,” she said in her statement
“We cannot allow this kind of insensitive and merciless attitude towards animals to prevail,” the Minister said.
Gandhi said she will take up the issue with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demand strong action in the matter. “I am going to take up this issue legally, criminally as well as politically. I will be writing to CM Maharashtra to take a strong action in this matter,” she said.
On his part, Mungantiwar defended himself, by saying that nobody in the Forest Department wanted to kill the tigress and, thus, hundreds of personnel from the department were trying to capture her alive since the last three months. He said that there was unrest among local farmers and Adivasis after she had reportedly killed 13 people in the past two years.
“Ministers and secretaries do not sit in Mumbai and protect forest and animal species. It is done by farmers and Adivasis. In this case, there was a lot of unrest among them. We didn’t want them to eventually become enemies of wildlife,” Mungantiwar told PTI, adding that all possible means were tried to capture the animal, but it had to be shot down to save the lives of forest staff trying to tranquillise her.
Mungantiwar pointed out that the right to kill wild species did not lie with his department and that the Centre and the Supreme Court had laid down stringent guidelines for the purpose.
It may be recalled Avni was spotted and killed around 11 pm on Friday, after an intensive search that had been going on for the past two months. The forest officials had spilled urine of another tigress and American perfume in parts of Borati forest’s compartment number 149 to draw out Avni from its habitat.
Avni is survived by her 10-month-old two cubs, both of which have gone missing ever since their mother was eliminated.
Avani’s elimination came nearly two months after the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the hunt by the Maharashtra Forest Department to capture or kill the wild cat.
The apex court’s order refusing to intervene in the matter came on September 11, 2018 after the Bombay High Court rejected a petition filed by a group of activists and NGO challenging the state forest department’s “shoot-at-sight” order and given a go-ahead for the elimination of the tigress.
Spotted for the time in the forests of Yavatmal district in 2012, Avni had killed at least 13 persons.
The forest authorities used trap cameras, drones with thermal imaging capabilities, a few of trained sniffer dogs and a para-glider in and around the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary which is in the hills of Pandarkawada in Yavatmal district. As part of the “Eliminate Avni” mission, the state forest department had hired sharpshooter Shafat Ali Khan who in turn deputed his son Agsar Ali to eliminate Avni.
In separate statement issued on Saturday, PETA India, Shiv Sena’s youth wing president Aditya Thackeray had slammed the Maharashtra government for killing Avni. “Dark day for the nation. Tigress #Avni murdered, likely in front of her cubs. Here’s what you can do to call for her killing to be treated as a wildlife crime,” PETA India tweeted.
Disapproving Avni’s elimination, Aditya Thackeray posed a series of questions to Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and demanded to know as to why the forest department had not focussed on capturing the tigress and re-locating it, instead of killing it.
Maintaining that the Government officials and the forest ministry are supposed to protect animals and forests from these poachers, not get inspired by them, Aditya demanded to know: “Why couldn’t this expert blood thirsty hunter dart the tigress and tranquilise her?,” he wanted to know from the State Government.
“As a family of wildlife lovers and conservationists, we had been coordinating internally to stop this hunt. The tigress could’ve been easily tranquilised and relocated. We didn’t speak publicly so as to not make it political or personal..,” the Sena leader said.