Maneka could’ve made a call to know truth: Minister

MUMBAI: A day after Union minister Maneka Gandhi criticised Maharashtra environment minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, he said he would have given his side of the story had she called him up. “If only she had spent 50 paise to make a call, I would’ve explained the entire process to her. She should not stoop so low to make her point. It is affecting the morale of forest officials who are involved in tiger conservation work,” said Mungantiwar.

Gandhi took to social media on Sunday and called the killing of tigress Avni, also tagged as T1, a “ghastly murder” and a “straight case of crime”. This sparked an exchange of words between colleagues of the saffron party even as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tried to ease out tension between his colleagues — the state cabinet and the Union minister.

Mungantiwar challenged Gandhi to constitute an inquiry at any level and offered to extend his cooperation. “I am ready to face any inquiry. Even if Maneka Gandhi wants an international expert to conduct an inquiry or maybe the Union government can have a probe conducted through National Tiger Conservation Authority,” said Mungantiwar.

He stoutly defended his line of action, citing guidelines prescribed by the tiger conservation body on how to deal with “man-eaters”. “Attempts were made by a 200-strong team over two months to cage her. Even on Friday night, when she was shot, an attempt was made to tranquillize her, but when she lunged at the jeep of forest officials, they had to pull the trigger in self-defence,” he said.

He said that sharp-shooter Shafat Ali Khan and his son Asghar were officially part of the team and there was no violation. He also added that Shafat Ali was felicitated after he shot a man-eating tiger in Gandhi’s constituency in 2009. Chief minister Fadnavis said they would examine if there were procedural lapses in the killing of the tigress. He told media persons at his official residence in south Mumbai that the killing of the tigress was “agonizing”.

Fadnavis said that people were raising doubts whether she had first been hit with a tranquillizer dart. “I’ve been told that when forest officials were trying to tranquillize her, she lunged at their jeep,” said Fadnavis.

Commenting on criticism by Gandhi, Fadnavis said that though her language “sounds harsh, one must understand her love for the subject”.