PROVE AVNI NOT A MAN-EATER: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea seeking contempt action against Maharashtra principal secretar y Vikas Kharge and eight others for rewarding people who had killed an alleged 'man-eater' tigress 'Avni' in Yavatmal district in 2018. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was told by animal rights activist Sangeeta Dogra that the tigress was not a man-eater as was evident from the postmortem report of the animal. Dogra contended that if an animal is man-eater it could be ascertained from the DNA reports, hair and nails remains in the intestines, which last for more than six months. "The tigress, which was killed, her stomach was empty," she claimed. She said that forest officials of the state ordered the killing of 'Avni' on the plea that it had killed 13 persons in the area and was a man-eater. "The killers of tigress were awarded by the state and there was celebration, which was in violation of the top court's order", Dogra argued. The bench said that it cannot control celebration but it can issue notice if people were rewarded, flouting the Supreme Court order.