Tigress Avni's killing will be probed: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday expressed his sadness over the decision to kill man-eater tigress 'Avni', saying his government will launch a probe to check if there were any procedural lapses in the entire episode.

"It's sad for us too that a decision was taken to kill tigress Avni. We'll still probe the issue to see if there were any lapses in the procedure followed," Fadnavis said.

"Maneka ji's words were harsh but we should understand her feelings as she is an animal lover," he added.

Fadnavis' statement comes a day after Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi hit out at the Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government over the killing of Avni and termed it a "straight case of crime".

Tigress Avni, who was believed to be responsible for the death of 13 people in the past two years, was gunned down by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in Maharashtra's Yavatmal on November 2.

Vowing to take up the issue "legally, criminally as well as politically", the Union Minister also came down heavily on Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, and said that many animals and not only Avni, have been gunned down on the latter's directives.

Gandhi also hit out at Ali, saying he was not authorised to gun down the tigress, and yet he carried out the task illegally.

Taking a strong objection to Gandhi's criticism of the Maharashtra government over Avni's killing, Mungantiwar said that he would have been happy if Gandhi had spoken to him before commenting on the matter. He added that it would be wrong of Gandhi to doubt the integrity of the forest officials.

Continuing his tirade against Gandhi, the Maharashtra Forest Minister had said that if she thinks "any tiger or tigress should not be killed even if it is a man-eater, then the decision should be taken by the Centre regarding it.