Anti-Naxal sharpshooter kills man-eater tigress in Maharashtra

safia@coastaldigest.com (TNN)
January 13, 2013

man_eater_tigerNagpur, Jan 13: A man-eating tigress was shot dead by a sharpshooter of the C-60 anti-Naxal squad in Navegaon National Park in Maharashtra on Saturday, 27 days after it first killed a woman in Bhandara district. Gondia district deputy conservator of forests S V Ramarao said the animal was not more than three years old and was shot 20km from the Navegaon National Park boundary. The park is 130km from Nagpur.

"We first tried to tranquillize the tigress but missed, and it charged at the team. In panic, one of the commandos, Suresh Atram, fired nine rounds to kill the animal," Ramarao said. State chief wildlife warden SWH Naqvi had granted permission to shoot the animal on January 4. The elusive tigress had killed a cow on January 10 and was in the area. Camera traps were deployed near the cattle kill on Friday to identify it.

At 10am on Saturday, a team of 20-25 officials, volunteers and commandos equipped with AK-47s went to check the cameras and established the gender of the big cat. "Presuming that the animal might be somewhere near the kill, we launched a search. One of the commandos sighted the tigress 50 feet away. Assistant conservator of forests Manohar Gokhale fired a dart to tranquillize the tigress but missed. The tigress tried to come closer and a commando then fired in the air," said Sawan Bahekar, a team member and honorary wildlife warden of Gondia district.

The tigress disappeared after the warning shot. At noon, the teams returned to find that the animal had moved its kill from the original spot.

It was then decided that the rest of the team would leave while only seven people — including three commandos — would stay behind in wait of the big cat. Certain that the tigress would return, the team took positions near the kill. At 1.15pm, the big cat returned. Assistant conservator Gokhale shot a dart but missed. The tigress then came charging at him and commando Atram fired five rounds. Even as the animal got injured, it kept charging at the team. Later, four more rounds were fired after which the tigress finally collapsed."

"Atram literally cried after the tigress lay dead saying, 'Mala maaf kara' (please pardon me)," honorary wildlife warden Bahekar said.

As news of the killing spread, thousands of villagers started gathering at the spot. To avoid any untoward incident, officials shifted the carcass 45km away. The postmortem was conducted and the body then consigned to flames.

Conservationist Harshwardhan Dhanwatey of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), who was present at the final rites, said it was a very young and robust tigress, and might have recently separated from its mother.

"The animal had injuries on head, lungs and shoulders," he said. State chief warden Naqvi justified the shooting saying it used to attack humans.

The last tiger that was shot was on November 30, 2007 in Talodi forest range in Chandrapur district. The Talodi tiger had claimed seven lives.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

Lucknow, Jan 12: The controversy over renowned Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's iconic poem 'Hum dekhenge' may have caused an upheaval in the literary world but it has also helped in resurrecting the famous poet for the young generations.

Students and young professionals are making a beeline for books on Faiz, his biography and his poems and book sellers are ordering supplies of Faiz books.

"Earlier, we sold hardly one book in a month or on Faiz but after the controversy, people are curious to know more about the poet and his poems. We have placed orders for the entire literary range on Faiz Ahmad Faiz," said a leading book seller in Hazratganj in Lucknow.

The bookseller said that the highest demand was for books written in Devnagri script.

"Not many in the young generation can read or write Urdu so they prefer Devnagri," the book seller said.

In Kanpur, most of the leading bookshops have already run out of stocks and book stalls in the ongoing Handloom Expo are drawing huge crowds for Faiz books.

Suchita Srivastava, B.Ed student in Kanpur said, "I have never been fond of Urdu poetry because I do not understand much of the language but after the controversy, I want to read poems of Faiz to understand what he wanted to say. I am taking help of Google to understand difficult words in Urdu."

Krishna Rao, another student at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, said that since books on Faiz had been sold out, he had ordered a Kindle edition and was reading them.

"Reading his poems actually widens one's perspective of things and becomes even more precious if you take into account the time and context in which they were written," he said.

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Agencies
August 5,2020

Ayodhya, Aug 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday recalled the significance of the path of 'maryada' associated with Lord Ram in the backdrop of the situation created by COVID-19 and emphasised the importance of social distancing and wearing face masks.

He said that the current situation demands 'maryada' should be 'do gaz ki doori, mask hai zaroori' and exhorted everyone to follow it.

In his speech after laying the foundation stone of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Prime Minister said the temple of Lord Ram will inspire and guide humans for ages to come.

He said that the path of `maryada' followed by Lord Ram is all the more necessary today in the situation created by COVID-19.

"The `maryada' (need) today is do gaj ki doori, mask hai jaroori (keep distance of two yards, wear mask). The Almighty may keep all the citizens healthy and happy, this is my prayer. The blessings of Mother Sita and Shri Ram be always there on the citizens," he said.

The Prime Minister termed the occasion as historic and said that India is starting a glorious chapter when people across the country are excited and emotional to have finally achieved what they had been waiting for centuries.

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manu Sharma, a convict in the 1999 Jessica Lal murder case, was released from Tihar Jail yesterday on the grounds of good behaviour after serving more than 16 years in prison, jail officials said on Tuesday.

Sharma had received the approval of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for his release after a recommendation of the Sentence Review Board for the same.

Advocate Amit Sahni, while speaking to ANI, had said that Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had approved the name of Siddharth Vashishth also known as Manu Sharma for release from Tihar Jail.

He said that Sharma's name was approved in a sentence review board meeting held on May 11. Earlier, Delhi High Court had also asked the SRB to consider his name for release.

Sharma, the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, was convicted for shooting and murdering Jessica Lal, when she refused to serve him liquor at Tamarind Court restaurant at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli on April 29, 1999.

Vashishth, 45-years-old, was serving a life term in connection with a case registered under Section 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offense or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to officials, the convict has undergone imprisonment for 16 years, 11 months and 24 days in actual, and 23 years 4 months and 22 days with remission. He has availed parole 12 times and furlough 24 times.

Earlier, Manu's wife -- Preity Sharma -- had approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) claiming that her husband had been illegally detained for more than the prescribed period of incarceration (20 years with remission) as per the prevalent policy of the state.

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