Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday joined the growing chorus of people who have protested the killing of man-eating tigress Avni. In a short statement on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi said,

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi#Avni November 5, 2018

Rahul quoted Mahatma Gandhi's words, "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated".

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government for killing Avni.

Tigress Avni, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 13 people in the past two years, was killed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal on Friday as part of an operation. Avni is survived by her two cubs who are 10 months old.She was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali, at compartment no 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station.

Reacting to the killing of Avni, Gandhi in a series of tweets lashed out at the Maharashtra government for giving the orders to kill her despite opposition from several stakeholders.

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"I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal," she said in a tweet."It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, (Sudhir) Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing," she said in another tweet.

She said she is going to take up the matter "very strongly" with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis."I am definitely going to take up this case of utter lack of empathy for animals as a test case. Legally, criminally as well as politically," she said.

She also came down heavily on Mungantiwar for giving order to private marksman Shafat Ali Khan's son to carry out the hunting operation."Every time he has used Hyderabad-based shooter Shafat Ali Khan, and this time his son has also appeared in the scene illegally to murder the tigress," she said in a tweet.

"His son was not authorised to kill. This is patently illegal. Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquilise, capture and qurantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter has killed her on his own under orders of Mungantiwar," she tweeted.

With PTI inputs