Visakhapatnam mourns the death of Avni; demands safety for her cubs

The movement seeking justice for Avni is growing stronger and is catching momentum by the passing day. Protesting the killing of Avni, a tigress, wildlife activists and volunteers gathered across the country on Sunday demanding safety for her cubs. Visakhapatnam too, joined the protests as the members of Vizag Vegans and JCI Vizag staged protests at the VUDA Central Park and RTC Complex, seeking justice for the slain tigress.

Aimed at rescuing the cubs of Avni, the protests saw the activists appeal to the government that the cubs should be rescued and rehabilitated to a forest area and not a zoo. They also demanded that Asghar Ali Khan, the man who killed Avni, should be brought to justice and punished for his act. Apart from demanding the sacking Maharashtra forest minister S Mungantiwar, the protestors in Visakhapatnam further asked for a fair probe by an independent panel from outside the state into the situation.

In case you didn’t know

Avni, a six-year-old tigress and a mother of two 10-month-old cubs, was shot dead recently in Maharashtra. Blamed by the state government for killing at least 13 human beings and consuming 60% of the bodies, the tigress was classified as a man-eater.

Animal activists, on the other hand, have been arguing that the killings of human beings took place upon forest land and hence, Avni couldn’t be called as a man-eater as she didn’t enter any human habitat.