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Preservation and protection of wild life has been a matter of prime concern, not only for lovers of wild life and environmentalists but also common people, and of course, the government. Thus, the death of a tigress in her prime is always a tragedy, no matter the circumstances that surround it. Popularly known as Avni, she was shot dead just before midnight on Friday.
Had she been captured alive, it would have made us all feel better — especially if she was not placed in a zoo but kept in a secluded area far from human habitation like the facility available in Pench Tiger Reserve in Vidarbha region. It would not, however, have made Avni feel any better, as captivity would have generated its own level of suffering and stress. A wild five-year-old tigress will not really adapt to captivity, no matter how nice the cage.
I am given to understand that Avni, who is believed to have killed at least 13 villagers in Maharashtra in the last 2 years, had to be eliminated, whether that meant a dart of tranquilizer or a gun shot. However, I also believe that if the Forest Department had been proactive and had a proper system in place from the outset, when the first villager was killed, the entire outcome could have been different.
Avni’s death is not the end of a sordid chapter. Her cubs, which are just a little over a year old, are still at large. They will be caught and placed in a rescue centre in Nagpur. While the Forest Department says that the cubs will be kept in isolation, in the hope of their future release, it is unlikely that will ever happen. Wild cats are not the easiest animals to relocate. In the case of cubs, however, they are young enough and they don’t have demarcated territories; if they are relocated far enough, they will not go back to the spot where they were originally caught.
But the cubs are also young enough to not have had any entire training imparted by their mother, to be fully self-sufficient. Even if they can survive on their own in the wild, there is another challenge. They have lived with a mother who had issues with people and they have observed her killing them. This, by no means, makes them potential man eaters but it might make them aggressive towards human beings.
The cubs, in the last few months, have also been in hiding with their mother, while a team of 150 forest guards armed with sticks, guns and cameras was hunting for them. Their exposure to humans has been extreme and negative. They have, probably, also witnessed their mother’s death. Now, they will be in hiding again, trying to avoid getting captured. They will, however, be captured eventually and that, too, will be traumatic for them.
The cubs are young enough to be held in captivity for a few more months before they can be released in the forest; yet they are old enough to remember the trauma of their mother’s death. In early months, their exposure to humans will only increase their mistrust. It will always be a potential gamble to release them in wilderness, as there is no way to guarantee a place free of humans, even if they are only forest guards.
Thus, the probable reality is that both of Avni’s cubs may live in captivity for the rest of their lives. And that means three tigers in their prime.
Avni is dead and gone but has left behind many questions. Why was she shot at night-time? Animals are generally not tranquilised at night-time. The Forest Department has said that a patrolling jeep was in the area, where the tigress had been spotted that evening by several people. This might be true but the question is what was a hunter doing with the patrolling team? And since this was in the dead of the night, one can infer that there was no real plan to tranquillise, but only to shoot.
Now, the moot question: The hunter in question is Asghar, son of the famed sharpshooter Shafath Ali Khan. Did his son have a formal invite from the forest authorities? If not, why was he allowed to accompany the official guards with a lethal weapon? Or, the Forest Department was determined to kill Avni by any means?
Bharatkumar Raut is a political analyst and former Member of Parliament (RS).
