Man-eating tiger shot dead after massive hunt
MUMBAI: A man-eating tiger that claimed more than a dozen victims in two years has been shot dead, sparking controversy over the legality of its killing.
One of the country’s most highprofile tiger hunts in decades ended on Friday night when the mother of two 10-month old cubs — known to hunters as T1 but Avni to wildlife lovers — was shot dead in the jungles of Maharashtra.
A team of more than 150 people had spent months searching for T1, using a paraglider and dozens of infrared cameras while sharpshooters had ridden on the backs of elephants.
However disputes quickly erupted after the killing as media reports said the tiger was shot in Yavatmal forest with no attempt to tranquilize her.
The Supreme Court had issued a hunting order for T1 — blamed for 13 deaths since June 2016 — in September, ruling that she could be killed if tranquilizers failed. Several appeals were made against the death sentence.
The tiger was killed at night, when tranquilizers are not allowed to be used, according to the Times of India and other media outlets.
T1 is said to have been shot dead by Ashgar Ali Khan, son of the most famous hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, who was meant to be leading the hunt but was not present on Friday night.
Forestry officials and the hunter did not answer calls to give details of the hunt.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A K Mishra told The Indian Express newspaper that a forest staffer had managed to dart the tiger with a tranquilizer at around 11 pm.
“But she charged at the team, forcing Ashgar to shoot in selfdefence,” he said. “The tigress lay dead in a single shot.”
However Mishra’s account was contradicted by other reports, while many groups condemned the way the killing was conducted.
The Times of India quoted sources involved in the hunt as saying it looked as though a tranquilizer dart had been put into the tiger’s corpse after the killing. The sources said the dart had not been fired.
Forestry officials acknowledged to the media that no vet was present during the hunt, as required by the Supreme Court order.
Jerryl Banait, a vet and activist in Karnataka state who had launched appeals against the order, described the shooting as “cold-blooded murder.”
“Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter’s lust for blood,” said the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group. It said the Wildlife Protection Act and National Tiger Conservation Authority rules had been flouted, calling for the matter to be “investigated and treated as a wildlife crime.”