Man-eater of Navegaon gunned down by Anti Naxal sharpshooter

[Kumarnishith]

Man eater Tiger in Navegaon National Park killed by Anti Naxal sharp shooter couple of days back. The team tried their best to tranquilize and capture the beast alive but as the tiger charged towards the squad it had to put down to rest by the sharpshooters...

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... en-big-cat


-Nishith

[Hammerhead]

At 10am on Saturday, a team of around 20-25 officials, volunteers and commandos equipped with AK47 weapons went to check the cameras and established that the big cat was a tigress.

"Presuming that the animal might be near the kill, we launched a search. As we moved, one of the commandos sighted the tigress at 50 feet. Assistant conservator of forest (ACF) Manohar Gokhale fired one dart to tranquillize the tigress but failed to hit it. The irritated tigress growled and tried to come closer to us. One of the commandos then fired in the air to scare her," said Bahekar.

Gokhale shot the dart but missed and hit a tree. The tigress got infuriated and came charging at him from 12 metres.

Quick to seize the danger, Atram fired five rounds at the animal. Even as the tigress got injured, it kept charging at the team. Later, four more rounds were fired after which the tigress finally collapsed.

If I read it some where they say, " Sharp Shooters ". miss from 12 meters,

"'mala maaf kara sahib'" , for shooting a charging tiger ? REALLY ??????

So that's 50 men with AK47's shooting and missing. Nexels are safe IMHO - Haji

[Kumarnishith]

Lol Haji...the poor guy who first took the shot from 12 mts with a tranqualizer gun was an Asst. Conservator of Forest who probably would not have fired a single shot in the last 10 years. The sharp shooter did their job at the right time and probably prevented a major accident. And I guess it takes great courage to fire upon a full grown angry charging tiger from 12 mts. And I guess AK 47 is not exactly the right equipment to hunt a tiger and moreover the so called sharpshooters are trained in jungle warfare to hunt down humans with guns (Probably more dangerous than a tiger) . With no expertise in hunting. Killing a charging tiger in a nick of time is a different ball game altogether.

And ya you are right about the statement "mala maaf karo" by Atram the sharpshooter who shot the killing blow. It was published in TOI 12th Jan edition..but the statement was made by him purely out of love and respect for the grand animal who lay dead before him.

-Nishith

[Skyman]

The more i read stories of people who NEED to be able to hit targets miss, the more i ponder the fate of the rest who don't.How much will they miss?

[essdee1972]

Man eater?? Man - blinking - eater??? It had only mauled 5 people. Of course, as Corbett said, being swiped out of the way by a tiger usually has permanent results. For all anyone knows, these people might have stepped on its tail inadvertently! She had recently been weaned (moved away from her Mom), so naturally she would be "behaving unnaturally"!

And since the "team" was on trees, why did they need to mow down the poor tiger for charging? Never heard of a tiger climbing trees, have you? What's a shot tiger supposed to do, keep mum and shed tears? Courage? Photographers with nothing but a camera face growling tiger while sitting on trees! These sarkari clowns don't even know about the principles of shikar! They should have machan'ed close to the original location of the kill, with proper fields of fire, and a decently trained person on the tranquiliser. I believe tranquiliser guns are some type of airgun, which shoot feathered (like arrows) syringes? Why aren't forest officials trained in tranquilising, an important aspect of their jobs?

Kill it, trap it, whatever, just don't malign the Queen of the forest by calling her a maneater, when she is not. Akin to killing someone in self defense and being called a Hannibal Lecter / Jeffrey Dahmer!

Coming to Corbett again, have you read (in Jungle Lore) how he trained the Chindits (he doesn't mention the name of the unit, but he was involved in Chindit training)? Do any of our "Naxal fighters" know how to read the jungle like that? The Naxals do - most of them are locals anyway!

Oh, Ok, end of rant!

[prashantsingh]

Edward James Corbett would be turning in his grave........If he were told that they hunt maneating tigers with an AK 47 in India today.

[Skyman]

They will use bofors next.Margin for error....

[manshah007]

Man eater?? Man - blinking - eater??? It had only mauled 5 people. Of course, as Corbett said, being swiped out of the way by a tiger usually has permanent results. For all anyone knows, these people might have stepped on its tail inadvertently! She had recently been weaned (moved away from her Mom), so naturally she would be "behaving unnaturally"!

Young tiger becoming maneater???? Indeed unnatural behavior. It is a well known fact that these majestic hunters become maneater only if they are weak and old or have been injured while hunting their prey,or injury due to bullet shot by poacher,as they find human as easy prey, once they taste human blood a maneater is born. As far as attack on human is concerned this majestic animal is known to attack when instigated,disturbed or if it feels threatened. Deforestation and decreasing habitat with frequent contact with human has driven tigers to limits of thier tolerance with consequences number of attacks increasing.



Oh, Ok, end of rant!