Mumbai, November 8: Avni, the man-eater tigress who was shot dead last week has raised a lot of questions on the killing of tigers and the laws around it. Now the post-mortem report of Avni also called T1 states she was starving for almost a week before she was killed. The question arises next is if her 10-month-old cubs too are starving since their mother's killing. According to a report in Mid-day, the post-mortem says, "Stomach was fluid filled and no major solid contents." Tigress Avni Killing: Rahul Gandhi Protests, Maneka Gandhi Hits Out At Maharashtra Government. 

According to the forest department's team, more than 100 members are doing a combing operation to find Avni's cubs, but they haven't got any clues so far. To ensure that her cubs don't starve, they have kept baits at several places. Reports also state that the male cub was heard calling in the same area where Avni was shot but there is no photographic evidence to support the claim. Avni Tigress Killing: I Invite Maneka Gandhi to Resign With Me, Says Maharashtra Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. 

Dr Prayag H S, a senior PhD research scholar from Bengaluru who was actively working on the rescue operation of T1 said it is a worrisome situation about the cubs. After looking at the post-mortem reports, he said, "I am worried about the cubs... [Going by the report] her stomach was almost empty when she was shot. If she was hungry, it's obvious her cubs must have been too. On Friday, it will be a week since T1's killing; I fear they will starve to death." He stressed on the need to locate the cubs at the earliest.

He also questioned the way in which Avni was darted and said it is a little amiss about how the dart did not bounce off the tigress. The diagnosis in the post-mortem report states: "In our opinion, the tigress has died of excessive internal haemorrhage and cardio-respiratory failure." Meanwhile, samples of the skin and muscles from the area where the tigress was killed are also collected. They have been sent to the Regional Forensic Laboratory in Nagpur for chemical analysis.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 08, 2018 12:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).