In an exclusive and brief interaction with 4moles.com, the noted Golfer has responded back to the criticism and put across his views on the ‘Tigress hunting’ row.

 

 

 

 

 

                                    Jyoti Randhawa to lead a team of dogs in hunt for maneater tigress Avni 

 

 

 

Veteran Golfer Jyoti Randhawa, who is also a dog trainer, recently drew flak and received major backlash on social media for being a part of an operation where he will lead a team of dogs to capture a ‘man-eater’ T1 tigress Avni at Maharashtra's Yavatmal district. According to media sources, for the first time ever, the Maharashtra Forest Department has roped in Cane Corso, an old Italian breed of hunter dogs to capture the 'man-eater' tigress Avni, a T1 tigress of Yavatmal district of Maharashtra.

 

 

 

The Maharashtra forest department and Bombay High Court took the decision to capture the problem tigress (or shoot her in case of failure) after three recent human killings were reported in the month of August that took the total count to 13 in the Pandharkawada forest area.

 

A Supreme Court bench, while refusing to interfere with the high court decision, said the forest department would be bound by their own order to tranquillize her first and, in case of failure, shoot her. Jyoti Randhawa’s presence to handle the Cane Corso breed of hunter dogs for the operation has sparked a social media furore with many social activists and NGOs asking him not to support the campaign. 

 

 

 

 

 

In an exclusive and brief interaction with 4moles.com, the noted Golfer has responded back to the criticism and put across his views on the ‘Tigress hunting’ row. This is what he has to say:

 

 

“The man-eating tigress of Yavatmal has grabbed international headlines over the last few months.  I am going by the verdict of the honourable Supreme Court of India wherein after due deliberation considering conclusive evidence of DNA and camera traps it was confirmed that T1 is indeed the man-eater tigress.

 

The situation here on the ground is critical as the tigress is with two cubs who are also likely to have turned into man-eaters as they have fed on human flesh. Time is of the essence as we have already seen fourteen deaths in the area. The five elephants were pressed into service also, unfortunately, didn’t yield any results.

 

 

I believe that we are witnessing one of the worst man versus nature conflicts that contemporary India has seen. The lives of thousands of innocent people as well as our precious wildlife is at stake here and, I thus, humbly consider it to be nothing less than my duty to serve in whatever way possible.

 

 

Being an ardent animal lover myself, I have two Pedigree dogs, Buster & Carlos, who have also been pressed into service to aid the teams in identifying the location of the tigress.

 

With the monsoons just weaning, bushes are over 5 feet tall making the conditions to conduct search operation even more challenging. In these circumstances, my dogs could be of use in indicating the location of the tigress which has been elusive so far.

 

Being from an army background myself, I personally feel that it is the duty of every citizen to contribute as per their domain expertise.

 

We hope to be able to identify her location and bring her back into her natural habitat and stop the indiscriminate killings of innocent people.”

 

 

According to sources, the forest officials have thrown just about everything they have at the tigress: hundreds of foot soldiers to comb the jungle, bulldozers to clear it, sharpshooters, jeeps, camera traps, a thermal imagery drone and five Indian elephants in hopes of surrounding the tiger so the veterinarians riding the elephants can dart her. But all in vain.

 

 

Meanwhile, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) has also stated that there will be sincere efforts first to tranquillize the tigress.