Sack, arrest minister over tiger killing: Congress
The Congress Party yesterday accused Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar of having links with international poaching mafia and sought his arrest and dismissal from the cabinet.
The minister refuted the charge, and threatened to would file a defamation suit against Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam.
The minister has come under attack after a man-eating tigress was shot dead in Maharashtra’s forests last week.
Nirupam claimed that 14 tigers died in 2014, 16 in 2016 and 21 in 2017, proving that the national animal was “unsafe” with Mungantiwar heading the ministry in the state.
“The number of tiger deaths in 2017 was the second highest in the state after Madhya Pradesh. It is highly possible that Mungantiwar could be in nexus with international poaching mafia,” Nirupam alleged.
Mungantiwar hit back, saying by linking his name with global poachers, the Congress leader was intentionally “ruining” the country’s image before the world community.
“In my tenure, only one tigress (Avni) has been killed, and that too, as per the Supreme Court orders. Nirupam is wrongly dragging all other natural deaths of tigers as if the creature is immortal. I shall file a defamation case against him in the Chandrapur court,” the minister warned.
Speaking at a press conference, Nirupam said despite the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)’s directives to install an e-surveillance system in every tiger reserve in the country, Mungantiwar has conveniently refrained from doing so repeatedly in Maharashtra.
“The state floated its tender in August 2016 and even after bids were received, the tender was scrapped,” Nirupam said, and showed the tender invitation documents.
“In March 2017, another tender was issued and it met the same fate after two months. However, all other states which have tiger reserves have installed e-surveillance, barring Maharashtra,” Nirupam said.
The Congress said that when the e-surveillance system was installed as a pilot project in Chandrapur’s Chanda Tiger Reserve, Mungantiwar himself praised it saying it could easily track a tiger’s movement as well as poaching activities.
Speaking about two panels which have been set up top probe Avni’s killing, animal activist and actress Rupali Ganguly said they comprise people from the government who could be “biased”.
“We demand a committee comprising forest officers, forensic and cyber experts, veterinarians and shooters to be part of the committee to ensure a fair probe and check the inconsistencies in the information provided so far,” Ganguly said.
Animal activists Priyanka Timmins, Anupama Mukherjee and Bharat Sharma announced that a ‘Global March’ will be held in Mumbai today afternoon from Worli to Shivaji Park to highlight Avni’s killing.
The Shiv Sena party also termed as ‘farce’ the inquiry committees and demanded a judicial probe.
Uddhav Thackeray, the chief of Shiv Sena which is an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said the very same people who supported the killing of Avni and, even hired a hunter to kill her, will now sit as ‘judges’ to probe her death.
“This is sheer drama. Those people who gave the contract to kill the tigress will now investigate her death. The committees must be dissolved and the probe must be conducted by a retired or sitting judge,” Thackeray said.
Mungantiwar offered an olive branch and said he was ready to set up a probe committee headed by Thackeray if he felt there was anything suspicious about the tigress’ killing.
“But, if this is not acceptable to him, I have recommended to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to appoint a five-member committee of retired Supreme Court judges. This will end the baseless political controversy in the matter,” Mungantiwar said.
Fadnavis had defended Mungantiwar against the allegations, saying, “he did not take a gun to go and personally kill Avni.”
“By this logic, during the ‘surgical strike’ (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi did not go to shoot at the borders, but took full credit for the action. Similarly, Mungantiwar should also own up the killing of Avni,” Thackeray shot back.
Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray wondered “who took the call to kill Avni” and whether all the forest officers and others involved were present at the time.
“There should be a free and fair judicial inquiry, if there’s nothing to hide. This committee is a sham. It is an arrogant way to give each other a clean chit and call the hunt legal,” Aditya said.
Besides a judicial probe, he also sought a narco-test/lie detector for all the officials from the ministry to unravel the truth.