Hyderabad/Mumbai: ‘On spotting Tigress T-1, I fired a dart from the tranquillising gun. The moment it pierced her hind leg, she turned around and roared loudly. In a fraction of a second, she encountered us; Avni was 5 metres away from the open-top Gypsy. She was furious and was in an absolutely attacking mode, I pulled out a 458 Magnum rifle and shot her..”
This was the account of Mr Asghar Ali, a Hyderabad-based sharpshooter, of the final moments of Avni, who was listed as a man-eater. Avni, who is believed to have two cubs, was shot dead at 11.45 pm on Friday near the Borati-Warud road in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. She was believed to have killed 13 humans, and her killing was cleared by the court.
Avni was spotted at about 6.30 pm by locals when she moved to the main road of Ralegaon taluka, where a weekly bazaar was on. They informed the regional forest conservator, who pressed the team of Asghar Ali, three forest officers and a driver. The villagers were made to vacate the place.
The team went around the area in an open-top jeep equipped with a high-beam torch. After four and a half hours, Avni was spotted reportedly without her cubs.
Mr Asghar Ali, the son of Mr Shafat Ali Khan who was invited by the Maharashtra government to kill the man-eater, shot the tigress with a tranquilliser.
“Generally the drug takes 10-17 minutes to act. She charged towards the vehicle, there was no option but to kill her,” he said. The carcass was taken to Nagpur for postmortem, he said.
On September 12, the Maharashtra government launched a search for Avni and invited Mr Shafat Ali Khan. He was in Patna and his son was given charge.
“Earlier too Avni was spotted but from a large range. It made three dangerous approaches, we couldn’t act in time. She continued to hunt human flesh, but on Friday she was put to rest in the same location where she had eaten three villagers,” Mr Shafat Ali Khan said.
It took 100 cameras, 200 field staff, 5 IFS officers and two sharpshooters to put Avni to rest. A.K. Misra, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), had issued orders to tranquillise the tigress first, and shoot it as the last resort. “Urine of another tigress and American perfume were spread in some areas following which Avni came by sniffing it,” an official from the forest department said.
