Nothing much has changed after the shooting of tigress Avni (T1) by a private hunter in Pandharkawda in Maharashtra in 2018. Tigress Avni was declared a ‘man-eater’ by the Forest department, and Maharashtra’s Chief Wildlife Warden issued an order to eliminate her. Following this, a private shikari was ‘invited’ by the Forest Department to execute her. Like everywhere else in our country, nepotism rules - and the hunter’s son shot tigress Avni dead, and our honourable courts are yet to rule on the blatant violations of laws that marked this sordid saga.

The same private hunter was again summoned in 2023 by the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar to eliminate yet another tiger declared as a man-eater. Officials reports claim that the tiger was shot dead by officers of the Nepal Police, but unconfirmed reports claimed that the shots fired were not from the machine guns preferred by the Police, but more likely from a big bore weapon preferred by shikaris to kill large wild animals.