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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

Predators’ Revenge

From the forests of Chandrapur to the coffee estates of Mysuru, the uneasy cohabitation between man and beast has been turning deadly of late. Over the past two months, a nine-year-old tiger killed six people across two forest divisions in Chandrapur, evading capture for weeks before finally walking into a cage baited with fresh meat. The caging of this tiger has brought to the fore the larger problem of human-animal conflict.


Across India, official records show that over 100 people are killed by tigers every year, a number that has steadily climbed as the country’s conservation successes collide with its development ambitions. Tigers, once endangered, are multiplying. But so are people, roads, mines and settlements encroaching upon what remains of the wild.


In Chandrapur, this contradiction is particularly stark. The district hosts a dense concentration of tigers - nearly 200 by some estimates - within a fragmented landscape of forests and coal mines. Tadoba-Andhari, Maharashtra’s oldest national park, sits amid a checkerboard of thermal power stations, open-cast mines, and expanding villages. The very success of Tadoba’s conservation programme, which has seen tiger numbers surge in recent years, has turned the surrounding areas into a danger zone. Dispersing tigers, especially young or ageing males pushed out of core territories, find themselves in human-dominated landscapes where cattle are easy prey and farmers an unintended casualty.


The tiger caged in Chandrapur is a case in point. Having killed six people, he became both a symbol of nature’s fury and a scapegoat for human neglect. In Karnataka’s Mysuru district, two fatal tiger attacks within a month have stirred anger and grief. The victims, both rural workers, were attacked while grazing cattle or working in fields abutting forest fringes. Villagers accuse the Forest Department of negligence, arguing that officials act only after tragedy strikes. For rural communities dependent on land and forest produce, coexistence has become a euphemism for fear.


Ecologists have long warned that as forest corridors shrink and buffer zones degrade, encounters between humans and tigers will rise. Satellite data confirm that in central and southern India, agricultural expansion and infrastructure projects have sliced through key wildlife passages. Tigers forced into smaller ranges face competition for prey and territory, leading some to venture into villages. The government’s approach remains reactive rather than preventive. State forest departments typically deploy capture squads only after multiple deaths. The Wildlife Institute of India’s 2019 guidelines urging habitat restoration and corridor protection have seen little traction on the ground.


India’s tiger success story, once a global conservation triumph, risks being marred by complacency. With nearly 3,000 tigers - over 70 percent of the world’s population - the country has proved that large predators can recover under protection. But that recovery is fragile. Unless habitat connectivity, scientific management and community participation become central to policy, the line between forest and field will keep blurring with tragic consequences for both man and beast.

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