Nagpur: Wildlife activists from all over Vidarbha on Wednesday took out a rally from Maharajbagh to Samvidhan Square against the decision of the forest department to employ private shooter Shafat Ali Khan to kill the man-eater tigress T1 and her cubs of Pandharkawda.A group of 50 activists and sarpamitras from Buldhana, Washim, Yavatmal and Wardha participated in the march. Barring one, no NGOs from the city turned up for the ‘dhadak morcha’. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has supported the move.APCCF Sunil Limaye, who called on the agitators to pacify them, said, “We do not want either humans or tigress dead and we will do whatever we can in our capacity to save them.” Later, Limaye and the protesters met PCCF (wildlife) AK Misra and submitted a memorandum of demands.According to the Supreme Court’s order, the tigress should be killed only when tranquillizing efforts prove futile. The agitated activists claimed that the state forest department was not keen on tranquillizing her, rather it wants her dead and hence appointed Khan. They said such a move could amount to the contempt of court and wanted Khan removed from the job assigned to him.Speaking to TOI, Dr Jerryl Banait, a city wildlife activist and mercy petitioner claimed, “The shooter was given an appointment letter a day before the Supreme Court was to hear the petition against the killing of the problematic tigress. This was a clear indication that the forest department wanted the tigress and her cubs killed.”Another activist Parag Dandge said, “According to Misra, the department is under pressure from the forest minister to appoint Khan and is duty bound to obey the orders. We will give the department some breathing time but the agitation will continue till our demands are fulfilled.”The protesters criticized the forest department for sending class one officer KM Abarna to Khan’s hotel room in late hours to apologize to him for not granting permission to enter the area in which the tigress is moving. Banait however said, “Misra flatly refused any such event took place and termed it as rumours and a media-cooked story.”

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