more-in A fresh war of words has broken out between the BJP-led government at the Centre and the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, this time over the killing of the ‘Lalgarh tiger’. Hours after Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday said that West Bengal in the only place in country where illegal killing of wild animals is “allowed and encouraged”, State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee responded by saying that the Union Minister should “apologise to the Adivasi community”. In her remarks, Ms. Gandhi said — referring to the hunting festival ‘Shikar Utsav’ — that “thousands of so-called tribals come to the forests around Lalgarh and kill thousands of animals every year, not for themselves but for smugglers”. “A tiger has died. How did she know it was killed by the Adivasis? Many people have different theories about the death of the tiger. Police and Forest department officials have used drones to spot this tiger over the last few weeks,” Ms. Banerjee said. She said that common people were “living in fear” because of the tiger, which even injured those villagers who went to collect kendu leaves in the forest. “In her bid to insult Bengal, she has insulted Adivasis. I am the last person to tolerate it. People of all communities, religions and cultural backgrounds live together in harmony in Bengal,” she said. Almost six weeks after it was first sighted in the forests of south Bengal, an adult Royal Bengal tiger was found dead in the forests of Lagarh on April 13 with injury marks on the head and neck. Forest officials had said that locals who went into the forest killed the animal.

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