The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked wildlife activist Sangeeta Dogra to submit necessary documents to determine whether Tigress Avni was a maneater or not.
The bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian also issued notice in the contempt plea filed by Sangeeta Dogra where she submitted that the tigress named Avni was shot dead in Ralegaon, Yavatmal district of Maharashtra in 2018. The tigress was killed as per the orders of the Forest Department on the pretext that she was a maneater and had killed 13 people.
Dogra has however submitted that reports of post-mortem (PM), FSL and DNA revealed that Avni was not a maneater.
On the Chief Justices’s enquiry as to how could a postmortem and a DNA report determine whether the tigress was a maneater or not, Dogra submitted that if a tigress is a maneater then hair, nails or teeth of a human is found in the intestine of the tigress for 6 months after it has consumed a human. However, in the present case, the report reveals that only hair and nails of animals were found in Avni’s intestine.
Dogra submitted that two POR/FIRs were filed after Avni was shot dead, however, the hunter’s name was missing in the first POR. Moreover forged clean chit was issued to hunter and NTCA committee and State committee was formed on Blank POR.
Further, the petitioner has stated that a 65-kg tigress statue was gifted to the hunter, however the state did not raise any objections to it. Dogra has also stated that on international radio, the hunter said that the Supreme Court had hired him to hunt the tigress which amounts to contempt in itself.
The matter is listed for next hearing after 2 weeks.
Read Also: Petition filed in Delhi HC by family of farmer Navreet Singh, who died in Republic Day violence