Summary:
"Those who had given the 'supari' (contract) to kill the tigress have been made members of the (probe) committee. Avni was the mother of two 10-month-old cubs.The Maharashtra government, however, defended itself calling the incident "sad but necessary" after the tigress attacked forest staff trying to tranquilise it. I am not aware if the issue was raised in my absence. The killing of T1, as the tigress was officially known, led to an outrage among animal lovers and wildlife organisations.Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had described as "farce" the committee constituted by the state government to probe the killing of Avni.He had demanded that a panel be formed under a retired judge to probe the tigress' killing. MUMBAI: The issue of tigress Avni's killing figured in the Maharashtra cabinet meeting on Tuesday with senior Shiv Sena leader and environment minister Ramdas Kadam seeking a judicial inquiry into the case.Senior BJP leader and forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar , however, said he was not aware of the issue being discussed during the meeting.Talking to reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting, Kadam said he raised the issue of the tigress' killing and demanded a judicial probe.When contacted, Mungantiwar said, "When I came for the meeting, nobody spoke about it..