Hours after the man-eater tigress Avni was shot dead in the forests of Yavatmal district in eastern Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena — whose registered party symbol is a tiger — on Saturday lodged a strong protest against the manner in which the wild cat was eliminated by a State forest department-hired sharpshooter.
In statement put out through his official twitter handle, Shiv Sena’s youth wing president 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.
"So what exactly is the difference between poachers/ trophy hunters and the Government officials who shot down and killed Tigress Avni? Just that the Government officials and the forest ministry is supposed to protect animals and forests from these poachers, not get inspired by them," Aditya said. Aditya said that human-animal conflict existed world over but it was the duty of “this very Ministry” to resolve such conflicts without hurting humans or wild life.
"I want the minister to ask his officials handling this issue, and then answer the people directly on: if they could get a shot, so perfect to murder Avni, why couldn’t this expert blood thirsty hunter dart the tigress and tranquilise her?," he wanted to know from the state Government.