T1 killing a murder, will demand action: Maneka Gandhi

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi slammed the BJP-led Maharashtra government, particularly forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, on Sunday over the "ghastly murder" of tigress T1. Mungantiwar defended the action, saying the animal first attacked forest staff.

The big cat, blamed for 13 deaths in the past two years, was killed in the state's Yavatmal district on Friday night after a months-long search. The tigress, called Avni by locals, is survived by two 10-month-old cubs.

Gandhi in a series of tweets criticised the decision to kill Avni despite opposition. "I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal," she tweeted using hashtag #Justice4TigressAvni. She vowed to follow case legally as well as politically.

Calling it "a straight case of crime", the Union minister said, "Despite several requests from many stakeholders, [Sudhir] Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing." She said she would take up the killing with Chief Minister with Devendra Fadnavis.

She slammed Mungantiwar for engaging shooter Shafat Ali Khan's son for the operation. "Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquilise, capture and quarantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter has killed her on his own under orders of Mungantiwar." She called Shafat Ali Khan a criminal and accused him of supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected murder in Hyderabad.

"I fail to understand why a state government should even bother about such a man let alone hire his services for illegal and inhuman acts."

Mungantiwar said that the orders to kill T1 were issued by a committee under the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) - wildlife. The forest team was forced to shoot the big cat when she charged at them after being darted by a tranquiliser shot.

"For two months, the forest staff tried to capture her. A PCCF rank officer was stationed there as locals had become aggressive... After spotting the tigress, the forest team tried to tranquilise her but decided to shoot her as she charged at them. No one told them to do so, it was a spot decision," Mungantiwar told DNA, adding that the animal had turned into a man-eater.

"After the killing of the tigress, local villagers celebrated. They were not her enemies. But they were fearful of her and could not even go to their farms," said Mungantiwar.

The tigress is blamed for nine human kills last year and four this year, with three deaths—the latest occurred on August 28—taking place in just 24 days. This led to massive unrest among local villagers.