Tigress Avni's Killing: It was in self defense, says shooter Nawab Ali

Shooter Nawab Azgher Ali who shot the T1 tigress last week expressed grief over the killing and said that his intention was to tranquillize and not to kill her.

While speaking to ANI, Ali said, "Since 2016, the tigress was on the radar as she had become a man-eater. The forest officials tried to catch her and the efforts were intensified after the tigress became more aggressive and more cases of man-eating were reported."

Describing the incident further, Ali said, "We had put up beds, cages and traps, but all our efforts went into vein. Finally, this tigress was spotted by the local people on November 2nd from a place where three human killings were reported. People made calls to forest Department, we immediately rushed to the spot At that time the tigress came on to the road and was sighted after a long time."

"The forest officials, who accompanied us, fired the tranquillising dart. As soon as the dart was fired, the tigress charged at our vehicle and in a fraction of seconds she came very close to our vehicle and while she was just six to eight metres away from us, in a matter of self Defence I took a shot on her," he clarified.

Asgar Ali's father, Shooter Shahfath Ali Khan reacting to the killing said," The tigress was creating lots of troubles in the villages of Maharashtra, she was was continuously killing people. The tigress should ideally hunt the wild animals but this T1 tigress was dependent on the bulls and buffalo and later it even started killing human beings."

The T1 Tigress named Avani was allegedly shot down in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra by sharp-shooter Nawab Asgar Ali as a part of an operation. The Maharashtra Forest Department had earlier issued shoot at sight orders against the tigress.

Expressing grief over the incident Union Minister For Women and Child Development Maenka Gandhi wrote on Twitter, "Deeply saddened by the way the tigress Avni has been murdered by a professional anti-national killer at the behest of the Maharashtra minister for Environment and Forests in Yavatmal. It is nothing but a straight case of crime.