Avni

There has been  enough controversy on the killing of Tigress T1 (popularly known as Avni). Let us see the circumstances under which she was killed

1. Tigress Avni was supposed to have killed and taken 14 human lives in the last 2 years, in Yeotmal district in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. The people of that area were fed up with Govt’s apathy in handling this crisis where human lives were lost, and the authorities could not contain the tigress. It was then decided by forest authorities, if we can not contain her then it is better ti kill her to save further human lives.
2. The activists took the matter to Supreme Court (SC), and  SC refused to stay the order, but suggested if possible with dart gun pellets, try to make tranquallise her and capture her.
3. The authorities started massive tigerhunt  in the area, where tigress was generally seen. And this hunt was going on since Sept 2018. As per the press reports, on the Friday night (2nd Nov) tigress was sighted and tranquilliser darts were fired at her by the hunters, she was hit by one tranquilliser dart and started turning violent and attacked the hunting team, when one of the team member Asgar Ali shot at her and she was killed. After the death of tigress, forest officers are trying to trace her  two 11 months old cubs.
4. There was a online petition to save Avni, which was signed by about 50,000 people. These activists say that by killing Avni, it is apparent that her 2 cubs will not survive in Jungle. However according to some experts and forest official 11 month old tiger cub can survive, of its own very well.
5. There aren’t too many arguments about whether or not Avni was responsible for the human killings  but there were lot about whether humans had any business being where they were. Animal right activists saw them as encroachers, and are arguing that she can not be called a man eater because she did not entered the human habitations to kill people. The forest dept, the govt and SC see it otherwise.

Now the killing of Avni has angered the Animal right activists and they are up in arms against govt. They are not ready to believe the details of how Avni was killed. The activist who approached SC against the shoot at sight order of the forest dept, alleges that tigress was shot dead without any effort to tranquillise her.One of the petitioner, who had earlier approached HC and SC said yesterday at rally in Mumbai, ” We want a new Avni act, where all forms of legalised hunting will be stopped in our country. No more wildlife will be eliminated or  culled.We want the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) to not just the sole authority, but we want a central committee to make this decision to declare a problem animal.”

Now this controversy has been given a political colour, as in the yesterday’s rally at Mumbai , many city Congress leaders were also present. The opposition has suddenly got one issue, where they can speak against govt. Even Maneka Gandhi, the Central Minister ( who also happened to be Animal Right Activist) has lashed out at the state govt in a series of tweets over the “ghastly murder” of tigress Avni, calling it a straight case of crime.                           Now the Maharashtra Forest Dept issued an official statement that a committee has been formed to conduct an in- depth inquiry into the death of tigress Avni.

I agree that we must save and protect all our wild life. But I am wondering on these activists behaviour. These activists and political leaders are never  open their mouth , when terrorists from the neighbouring country enter our territory and kill innocent citizens and member of our security forces . That time there are no rallies for condemning the terrorist attacks , which resulted in loss of human lives. And in case if a security force officer kill even one terrorist, then there are many activists to defend the human rights of the terrorist and above all they will hold rally for condemning the forces. As if ordinary citizens and  Security Force  people have no Human Rights. Same is the case here,have  any of the Animal Right Activists  ever approached the family of those 14 innocent people who were supposed to be killed by Avni, and offered their sympathy to the family members of the deceased. I remember an old saying which is ” Animal killing a man is not a news but man killing an animal is a such a big news now a days.”

So in the end, friends what you say in this matter.

Please give your views/ feed backs/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

13th Nov 2018