Most of you may be aware that for quite some time now, there has been a big campaign to protest the shooting of a tigress labelled T-1 ...better known as Avni which has been declared a man-eater in the state of Maharashtra. She has been alleged of killing 13 persons in her forests.

Bombay High Court had issued the orders for either tranquilizing or shooting her. But forest department could not capture her in last two months. So shoot-at-sight order were issued for killing Avni. But the private shooter hired from Hyderabad was sent back after the public outrage and a union minister's intervention..

After one of the 5 elephants being used in the search operation, ran amok on 3rd October and killed a person; forest officials brought back private shooter Nawab Shafaat Ali Khan from Hyderabad for the job. He called additional help from Arjun awardee golfer Jyoti Randhawa to put his two dogs in the service. And now motored hand-gliders are being commissioned for the first time in India for such an operation! What a mission for killing a creature!

But why they wanna kill Avni?

There are no conclusive evidence to prove Avni a man-eater. It looks like she is being framed for unjustifiable charges because of commercial interest in and around that reserved area. The area has precious mineral resources like coal, limestone and dolomite.

Avni is a young 5-6 year old mother of two babies. If she is killed, the survival of both her 10 month old cubs will be jeopardized.

All the villagers who were allegedly killed by her went deep in her territory for grazing their cattle. Avni never encroached in human territory but she was living well within her forest boundaries. But what would a protective mother do if she or her babies feel threatened?

Thanks to wide-spread protest involving many celebrities, leaders, wild-life activists, animal lovers and public; the matter got a good media attention. After the interference of Union Minister Menaka Gandhi, forest department had to send the shooter Khan back on 21st September. But after the 3rd October incident, they called him back.

Yesterday NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) issued a strong letter to Chief Wildlife Warden for violation of the prescribed protocol in declaring T-1 tigress a man-eater and making questionable haste in killing a mother tigress.

Why do meat-eaters have extended support to Save Avni campaign?

Many animal rights activists has raised this question. They allege that meat-eaters are responsible for the mass killing of about 80 million sentient animals everyday, that are farmed for their food including pigs, chickens, cows, fishes etc. What makes them so concerned about life of one animal while intentionally participating in the slaughter of innumerable animals on a daily basis? Isn't it being speciesist?

Well, let me try to answer it. Tiger is a royal creature. Actually, tiger is a national animal of India. Beside that, these are the festival days celebrated as Durga pooja or Navaratri. The tiger is considered the mount of goddess Durga worshiped in these days. So there is a lot of sentiment, traditions, pride and respect involved towards the big cat among the common public.

What more, humans have a psychology to value what's rare. Since farm animals are being mass produced at will, their lives doesn't matter much to most humans. But wildlife that is very scarce and on the verge of extinction, catches their interest and imagination. Big cats have always fascinated human beings. And now, it's well known that their numbers are very few and diminishing by the year. Their government is spending millions to conserve them in several sanctuaries. Many celebrities have been an ambassador for Save Tiger campaigns. So people want to contribute something to save them.

People fear losing something forever. They think, whether it would be possible for their next generation to ever see these fierce beasts ever! So they tend to put efforts for conservation and saving them.

Whether you call it speciesism or discrimination or whatever but we need to accept that there is a distinction between "discrimination" and "differentiation". And the fact that meat-eaters are not saving a tigress because they care for the life of a sentient being. But because they feel some novelty in her existence.

Whatever reason s there are, but thanks to the widespread penetration of #LetAvniLive public campaign that she and her cubs have got some chances ...if any. fingers crossed

If you want to sign the petition, find it on Change.org:

Petition to the President of India to save Avni & her two cubs from death

_{Image courtesy: Petition to Save Avni and her cubs}