Tigress Anvi's Death: Maharashtra Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Responds to Maneka Gandhi, Asks Her to 'Focus on Malnutrition and Child Deaths'
'She (Maneka Gandhi) should work against malnutrition and child deaths, rather than seeking someone's resignation,' Mungantiwar said, while responding to her tirade.
Mumbai, November 6: Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, while responding to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's tirade on tigress Anvi's "killing", said that she should work against malnutrition and child death, rather than seeking someone's resignation. Mungantiwar's retort comes after Gandhi asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to sack him for "ordering the murder".
Mungantiwar told news agency ANI, "She (Maneka Gandhi) should work against malnutrition and child deaths, rather than seeking someone's resignation. I also think tigers are important but I feel human life is equally important. Don't know what she doesn't understand." Tigress Avni Killing: Maneka Gandhi Asks for Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Resignation.
He further added that "if party chief and Maharashtra CM think that I am a burden, then they can remove me. This can't be decided by Maneka ji (Gandhi) and, moreover, she is not authorised to do so."
Tigress Avni, also known as T1, was shot dead by a sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali in Maharashtra's Yavatmal. Her killing has become a matter of debate and animal activists are protesting against it.
Gandhi, who serves as the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, had publicly condemned the killing and asked Maharashtra CM to take action against the State Forest Minister. "Request you to fix responsibility of killing and consider removing the minister from his post," she had said.
In the last two years, Maharashtra had witnessed multiple cases of a man-eating tiger, it was reported that Avni was behind the 13 deaths. She was first spotted in 2012 in the forest of Yavatmal. DNA evidence had linked her to 5 of the 14 bodies found in the region she inhibits. Reports further inform that Avni is survived by her two cubs who are just 10 months old.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 06, 2018 09:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).