MUMBAI: A man-eating tiger that claimed more than a dozen victims in two years has been shot dead in India, sparking controversy over the legality of its killing.
One of India’s most high-profile tiger hunts in decades ended Friday night when the mother of two 10-month old cubs — known to hunters as T1 but Avni to wildlife lovers — was shot dead in the jungles of Maharashtra state.
A team of more than 150 people had spent months searching for T1, using a paraglider and dozens of infrared cameras while sharpshooters had ridden on the backs of elephants.
However, disputes quickly erupted after the killing as media reports said the tiger was shot in Yavatmal forest with no attempt to tranquilize her.
India’s Supreme Court had issued a hunting order for T1 — blamed for 13 deaths since June 2016 — in September, ruling that she could be killed if tranquilizers failed. Several appeals were made against the death sentence.
The tiger was killed at night, when tranquilizers are not allowed to be used, according to the Times of India and other media outlets.
T1 is said to have been shot dead by Ashgar Ali Khan, son of India’s most famous hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, who was meant to be leading the hunt but was not present Friday night.
Forestry officials and the hunter did not answer calls to give details of the hunt.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A.K. Mishra told The Indian Express newspaper that a forest staffer had managed to dart the tiger with a tranquilizer at around 11 p.m.
“But she charged at the team, forcing Ashgar to shoot in self-defense,” he said. “The tigress lay dead in a single shot.”However Mishra’s account was contradicted by other reports, while many groups condemned the way the killing was conducted.
The Times of India quoted sources involved in the hunt as saying it looked as though a tranquilizer dart had been put into the tiger’s corpse after the killing. The sources said the dart had not been fired.
Forestry officials acknowledged to Indian media that no vet was present during the hunt, as required by the Supreme Court order.
Jerryl Banait, a vet and activist in Karnataka state who had launched appeals against the order, described the shooting as “cold-blooded murder.”
“Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter’s lust for blood,” said the Indian branch of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group.
It said India’s Wildlife Protection Act and National Tiger Conservation Authority rules had been flouted, calling for the matter to be “investigated and treated as a wildlife crime.”
The tiger’s body has been taken to a zoo in the city of Nagpur for a post-mortem.
Despite the disputed circumstances, villages around the town of Pandharkawda celebrated the death with relief.
T1 claimed her first victim, a woman whose body was found in a cotton field, in June 2016. Since then most of the dead were male herders.
India has launched a major campaign to boost tiger numbers. At the last tiger census in 2014 the number had risen to more than 2,200 from a low of less than 1,500.
But urban spread as the population of 1.25 billion grows has increasingly eaten into the territory of wild animals.
Endangered elephants and tigers kill on average one person a day, according to government figures.
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Man-eating tiger shot dead in India after massive hunt
Man-eating tiger shot dead in India after massive hunt
- A team of more than 150 people had spent months searching for tihe man0eating tiger after it killed 20 peoiple
- The tiger was killed at night, when tranquilizers are not allowed to be used, local media claim
Trump enters election year with big wins — and bigger political headwinds
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump stormed back into office with a shock-and-awe policy blitz that expanded presidential power and reshaped America’s relations with the world. But it has come at a steep cost: as he enters the New Year and midterm elections loom, his once unshakeable hold on Republicans is slipping, say historians and analysts.
Back in January, as Trump triumphantly returned to the White House for a second term, he vowed to remake the economy, the federal bureaucracy, immigration policy and much of US cultural life. He delivered on much of that agenda, becoming one of the most powerful presidents in modern US history.
Like all US presidents who cannot seek another term, Trump faces the inevitable waning of power in his second year. But he also begins the New Year with an erosion in political support.
Some Republican lawmakers are rebelling, and opinion polls show a growing number of voters are unhappy with the high cost of living, an aggressive immigration crackdown and a sense that Trump has pushed the boundaries of presidential power too far.
Trump’s approval rating slipped to 39 percent in recent days to nearly its lowest level of his current term as Republican voters soured on his handling of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Now, Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in the November elections, threatening Trump’s domestic agenda and raising the specter of a third impeachment by Democrats if they win control of the House of Representatives.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said lowering inflation — which he blamed on former Democratic President Joe Biden — has been a priority for Trump since his first day back in office.
“Much work remains,” Desai said, adding that Trump and his administration will continue to focus on the issue.
MOST POWERFUL PRESIDENT SINCE 1930s
In his first year back in the White House, Trump has cut the size of the federal civilian workforce, dismantled and closed government agencies, slashed humanitarian aid to foreign countries, ordered sweeping immigration raids and deportations, and sent National Guard troops into Democratic-run cities.
He has also triggered trade wars by imposing tariffs on goods from most countries, passed a massive tax-and-spending-cut bill, prosecuted political enemies, canceled or restricted access to some vaccines, and attacked universities, law firms and media outlets.
Despite promising to end the Ukraine war on the first day he was in office, Trump has made little progress toward a peace deal, while asserting he has ended eight wars, a claim widely disputed given ongoing conflicts in several of those hotspots.
All modern presidents have sought to expand their presidential power, but this year Trump has increased executive might at a rate rarely seen before, historians and analysts say. He has done this through executive orders and emergency declarations that have shifted decision-making away from Congress and to the White House.
The conservative majority on the US Supreme Court have mostly sided with Trump, and the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stand in his way. And unlike his first term, Trump has total control over his cabinet, which is packed with loyalists.
“Donald Trump has wielded power with fewer restraints in the last 11 months than any president since Franklin Roosevelt,” said presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
In the first few years of his 1933-1945 White House tenure, Roosevelt, a Democratic president, enjoyed large majorities in Congress, which passed most of his domestic agenda to expand government with little resistance. He also enjoyed significant public support for his efforts to tackle the Great Depression and faced a fractured Republican opposition.
Analysts and party strategists say Trump’s difficulty in convincing voters that he understands their struggles with rising living costs could prompt some Republican lawmakers to distance themselves in an effort to protect their seats in November.
Trump hit the road this month to promote his economic agenda and kick off what aides say will be multiple speeches next year to try to convince voters he has a plan to reduce high prices, even though he is not on the ballot in November.
But his meandering 90-minute address to supporters in Pennsylvania earlier this month — in which he riffed on a range of subjects unrelated to the economy and derided the issue of “affordability” as a Democratic “hoax” — alarmed some Republican strategists.
A Republican with close ties to the White House conceded that Trump faces headwinds on the economy heading into the New Year and the public mood on the rising cost of living has “become a persistent drag.”
“We have to remind voters they need to give the president a full four years,” said the Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal discussions.
Back in January, as Trump triumphantly returned to the White House for a second term, he vowed to remake the economy, the federal bureaucracy, immigration policy and much of US cultural life. He delivered on much of that agenda, becoming one of the most powerful presidents in modern US history.
Like all US presidents who cannot seek another term, Trump faces the inevitable waning of power in his second year. But he also begins the New Year with an erosion in political support.
Some Republican lawmakers are rebelling, and opinion polls show a growing number of voters are unhappy with the high cost of living, an aggressive immigration crackdown and a sense that Trump has pushed the boundaries of presidential power too far.
Trump’s approval rating slipped to 39 percent in recent days to nearly its lowest level of his current term as Republican voters soured on his handling of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Now, Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in the November elections, threatening Trump’s domestic agenda and raising the specter of a third impeachment by Democrats if they win control of the House of Representatives.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said lowering inflation — which he blamed on former Democratic President Joe Biden — has been a priority for Trump since his first day back in office.
“Much work remains,” Desai said, adding that Trump and his administration will continue to focus on the issue.
MOST POWERFUL PRESIDENT SINCE 1930s
In his first year back in the White House, Trump has cut the size of the federal civilian workforce, dismantled and closed government agencies, slashed humanitarian aid to foreign countries, ordered sweeping immigration raids and deportations, and sent National Guard troops into Democratic-run cities.
He has also triggered trade wars by imposing tariffs on goods from most countries, passed a massive tax-and-spending-cut bill, prosecuted political enemies, canceled or restricted access to some vaccines, and attacked universities, law firms and media outlets.
Despite promising to end the Ukraine war on the first day he was in office, Trump has made little progress toward a peace deal, while asserting he has ended eight wars, a claim widely disputed given ongoing conflicts in several of those hotspots.
All modern presidents have sought to expand their presidential power, but this year Trump has increased executive might at a rate rarely seen before, historians and analysts say. He has done this through executive orders and emergency declarations that have shifted decision-making away from Congress and to the White House.
The conservative majority on the US Supreme Court have mostly sided with Trump, and the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stand in his way. And unlike his first term, Trump has total control over his cabinet, which is packed with loyalists.
“Donald Trump has wielded power with fewer restraints in the last 11 months than any president since Franklin Roosevelt,” said presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
In the first few years of his 1933-1945 White House tenure, Roosevelt, a Democratic president, enjoyed large majorities in Congress, which passed most of his domestic agenda to expand government with little resistance. He also enjoyed significant public support for his efforts to tackle the Great Depression and faced a fractured Republican opposition.
Analysts and party strategists say Trump’s difficulty in convincing voters that he understands their struggles with rising living costs could prompt some Republican lawmakers to distance themselves in an effort to protect their seats in November.
Trump hit the road this month to promote his economic agenda and kick off what aides say will be multiple speeches next year to try to convince voters he has a plan to reduce high prices, even though he is not on the ballot in November.
But his meandering 90-minute address to supporters in Pennsylvania earlier this month — in which he riffed on a range of subjects unrelated to the economy and derided the issue of “affordability” as a Democratic “hoax” — alarmed some Republican strategists.
A Republican with close ties to the White House conceded that Trump faces headwinds on the economy heading into the New Year and the public mood on the rising cost of living has “become a persistent drag.”
“We have to remind voters they need to give the president a full four years,” said the Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal discussions.
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