Bombay high court allows forest dept to shoot problem tigress

Mumbai: While the Bombay high court has allowed the forest department to tranquillise or shoot the alleged problem tigress, T1 of Yavatmal region, wildlife activist Dr Jerryl Banait has on Friday, moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the high court’s order to shoot it.

The high court order also entails capturing the two cubs of the 6-year-old tigress Avani, against which Dr Banait has appealed in the apex court.

The chief wildlife warden, A.K. Mishra had on Wednesday ordered the forest department to shoot the tigress from Ralegaon forest region of Yavatmal, stating that it is responsible for killing three grazers in August.

Dr Banait highlighted that earlier a shooting order was given by the wildlife chief, when the tigress was also held responsible for killing two in November 2017 and January this year, but the order was stayed by the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court when the tigress was discovered with two newly born cubs.

“Our plea is to explore the option of tranquillising the tigress rather than shooting it and then relocating the animal along with its cubs. The PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forest) have not followed the standard protocol by the NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) while labelling the tigress as ‘man-eater’, as no DNA analysis has been done to ascertain if the same tigress is behind the killings,” said Dr Banait.