Who Killed Her? Poem by M. Asim Nehal
Who Killed Her?
On a full moon night
When stars were whispering
She was born in the wild
Mother took great care
Until she could hunt and survive
She chose her territory
Officially, she was known as T-1
But her real name was "AVNI"
Soon she attained the maturity
And chose her prince charming
What she didn't like was human presence
Warned humans twice
That trespasser will be killed
But as usual we in our greed
Overlooked her warnings
As a consequence she killed thirteen
In two years, was that a cooked story?
Or our way to put the things
Whatever, the government came into action
For over six weeks, more than 100 Forest Department officials,
Guards, tranquillizing experts, shooters, trackers, rescue teams,
Veterinarians and two elephants,
Carried out a massive hunt for a tigress- Avni
In the meantime, she delivered two cubs
Unaware of the surroundings and ploy of humans
On one inauspicious night
When she came out for the hunting for cubs
They killed her under the pretext of "Self-defense"
It is for you to decide, who is wrong and who is right.
The cubs are orphan now, soon they will learn
The art of survival, In the open jungle
The legal battle will be on,
Government will try to justify,
The opposition will drag the matter to embarrass
And we the wildlife lovers will make a hue and cry
The debate will be on for few days
And then it will die till the next case.
The forest department said that it will be sharing the details of the operation at a press conference in Nagpur today.
She was a six-year-old mother of two cubs. Avni was protecting her two 10-month old dependent cubs in the vicinity of the Tippeshwar Tiger Sanctuary, since the past several weeks till she was shot down by a marksman, Nawab Asghar Ali Khan.
Her carcass has been shifted to Nagpur's Gorewada Rescue Centre for an autopsy but her cubs were missing.Tigress Avni was labelled as a man-eater and had been the focus of a massive hunt for the past few months.
The forest department issued a shoot-to-kill order for her this year. The shoot-to-kill order was reportedly only to be used as a last resort. It was challenged in courts all the way to the Supreme Court.
The Bombay High Court's Nagpur Bench last month admitted a PIL that sought a stay on plans to kill Avni and instead capture her alive.
A change.org petition to 'save tigress Avni' that was signed by over 50,000 people said that her killing "would eventually result in the death of her two cubs too, as they are both too young to hunt and survive on their own".The forest department had deployed a team of over 100 people to make sure that the tigress and her cubs would not wander close to the nearby villages again.
Also employed on the hunt for Avni were around a 100 camera traps, a pack of hunter dogs, drones and a motorised paraglider that was being used to survey the forest from a height of about 1,000 feet.
The hunt for the tigress was even making international headlines.
Despite the all-out nature of the hunt that has been launched, tigress Avni remained untraceable for a long time. That, perhaps, was the only silver lining for a bunch of activists who have voiced fierce opposition to the hunt.On the other hand, some locals in Yavatmal were seen celebrating tigress Avni's death, by bursting fire crackers and distributing sweets.
The death of Avni or T-1 who had two young cubs to feed is a great shock. Killing her is inhuman. You have so touchingly and vividly delineated this poem and have brought the picture of human behaviour. Beautiful poem on wildlife amazingly presented.10
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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6/2/2024 6:05:04 PM # 1.0.0.1119
A very sad story on how can wildlife survive in a world that man considers he is King and he destroys anything that gets in his way. A beautifully written poem on a very sad reality for the wild animals of this world!