Slain tigress Avni’s male cub found, is safe: Forest officials

Days after the forest department said slain tigress T-1’s male cub (T1-C1) jumped over a 10-foot-high chain-link fence and went missing, forest officials on Wednesday said they had managed to locate the cub again.

Forest officials said they spotted the cub in the forest area next to the one that had been cordoned off to rescue the cub. “The cub is healthy and made a fresh cattle kill about 400 metres from the enclosure, which was cordoned off by us at compartment 655 near Loni village to trap T-1’s cubs,” said Sunil Limaye, additional principal chief conservator of forest, Nagpur. “We hope to rescue the cub within the next three to four days.”

The forest department, however, did not share the camera trap images of the male cub. “Relentless efforts have been made to locate and rescue the cub. Our search has intensified with similar resources used to rescue T-1’s female cub. We have decided that no images will be shared until the male cub is captured,” he said.

Meanwhile, the animal welfare group petitioning against T-1’s death was apprehensive about the forest department’s intention of not making the male cub’s images public. “The department continues to make this a top secret mission. If they are sharing information about his safety, there is no harm in showing images. The inconsistencies in this entire debacle seize to end,” said Sarita Subramaniam from Earth Brigade Foundation.

The petition on T-1’s death will be heard by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on January 15.