NAGPUR: The teams working to capture the problem tigers in Pandharkawda in Yavatmal got eight more days with the
Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court
staying the shoot orders till next Tuesday.
The division bench of
Justice BP Dharmadhikari
and Justice Swapna Joshi heard the matter on Tuesday. A formal PIL was also filed by senior lawyer
Ravindra Khapre
on behalf of Mumbai-based dentist Dr Sarita Subramaniyam. One PIL has been filed by Dr
Jerryl Banait
through his lawyer Tushar Mandlekar.
The special counsel for the forest department Kartik Shukul sought time to go through the PIL and hence court listed the matter on next Tuesday. Till then the teams working in the field will not shoot the tiger but can tranquillize and capture it.
Now two PILs challenging the shoot order issued by chief wildlife warden AK Misra have been clubbed. The petitioners have contended that the tigress (T1), which has been ordered to shot, is not a habitual human killer and officials have failed to differentiate between chance encounters and habituated killings and hence this is not a fit case for eliminating the tigress.
They have demanded setting up of special investigating team (SIT) comprising top forest and police officials and NGOs to investigate all 10 human deaths in last 18 months.The PILs alleged that it is necessary to take efforts to minimize man-animal conflict but local staff has been callous and negligent resulting in going the situation out of hands.
The petitioners felt that deliberate attempts to attribute the human deaths in suspicious conditions are being made by the forest department for obvious reasons.
Khapre argued that no serious efforts were taken to tranquillize the tigers in a scientific manner by using elephants. It is now that elephants are being called.
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