Avni wasn’t tranquilised: Autopsy report debunks Maharashtra Forest Dept claim tigress was shot dead in self-defence

The killing of tigress Avni triggered substantial outrage among not just animal lovers and activists, but the public on the whole, who believed that she could be saved. Now, there is bound to be even more outrage as an independent autopsy report suggests that the tranquiliser dart may have been inserted into her thigh after she was shot and no attempts were made to render her unconscious.

Avni, officially known as T1, was shot dead in the Borati forest in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district on the night of 2 November. The tigress was tagged a “man-eater” and believed to have killed 13 people in the region over two years. Both the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court had upheld the Maharashtra Forest Department’s shoot-at-sight order for Avni, but had held that all efforts should first be made to tranquilise her.

Four veterinarians conducted Avni’s post-mortem examination, according to The Indian Express , and the witness report was submitted by Nagpur-based wildlife biologist Milind Pariwakam, who was the representative of the Maharashtra Forest Department.

The autopsy conducted at the Gorewada Rescue Centre in Nagpur also found that the dart was secured to Avni’s body with a strap, likely to hold it in place while the carcass was being transported, The Times of India reported.

The autopsy found that the pink dart, visible prominently in the images of Avni’s body that began to circulate after her death, did not show the kind of impact it would have had had it been “fired from a syringe projector” (tranquilising gun).

The report says that the 5-millilitres capacity dart with a 1.5-inch collared needle was “placed subcutaneously” in Avni’s left thigh. This indicates that the dart could not have been fired using a gun from a distance, as it would have then pierced the tigress’ skin beyond the dermis.

“There was no haemorrhage observed in the muscles at the darting site. A dart fired from a syringe projector always leaves a significant and obvious haematoma, which was not observed in this case,” the witness report said.

Explaining the findings, a wildlife expert said : “The report indicates that the dart did not even pierce through the fascia (between muscle and skin), which does not have blood supply, and just punctured the skin.”

Another damning finding of the provisional autopsy report is that it says the trajectory of the bullet that killed her shows that Avni was “facing away” from the shooter when he pulled the trigger. This contradicts the Maharashtra Forest Department’s claim that they were forced to shoot the tigress dead in self-defence after she charged at the team that had fired a tranquiliser dart to immobilise her.

The report adds that Avni died due to excessive internal haemorrhage and cardio-respiratory failure, and her stomach and intestines were filled with fluid and gas, indicating that she had not hunted or eaten for four to five days.

With details of Avni’s autopsy report out in the public, wildlife activists said they will file a petition against the Maharashtra Forest Department in the Supreme Court, according to News18 Lokmat .

AK Mishra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) of Maharashtra, who had given the shoot-at-sight order, refused to comment on the “specifics” of the report. “The department has already ordered an inquiry into the events of the day (2 November, when Avni was killed), and any conclusion is premature at this stage,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The autopsy report was submitted to Mishra on Sunday, according to The Times of India.

Avni’s death had fuelled calls for the resignation of Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, including by Union minister Maneka Gandhi, who had strongly condemned Avni’s “murder” . “It is nothing but a straight case of crime,” she had tweeted with the hashtag, #Justice4TigressAvni.

She had targeted the Maharashtra government for “illegally” murdering the tigress, questioned its decision to hire sharp shooter Shafat Ali Khan, a “criminal”, for the job and also written to Maharashtra chief minister Devandra Fadnavis to “remove” Mungantiwar from the post, accusing him of being out of bounds while issuing orders to shoot tigress Avni.

In response, Khan has threatened to sue Maneka for making “utterly defamatory and baseless allegations” against him. It was Khan’s son Ashgar Ali who finally shot the bullet that killed Avni.

Mungantiwar, too, did not take lightly to Maneka’s comments, demanding her resignation in turn.