The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is planning to allow the legitimate hunting of wild animals such as blue bulls (nilgai) and wild boars to tackle man-animal conflict.
According to environment minister Prakash Javadekar, the ministry is mulling the implementation of an office memorandum passed in December last year, which states that wild animals which destroy crops should be treated as vermins. However, the ministry’s move has drawn flak from animal rights groups.
In defence, Javadekar said that man-animal conflict was on the rise and farmers were finding it tough to protect their crops and property.
Debatable issue
Both blue bulls and wild boars are declared wild under Schedule III of The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which was later amended in 1993. The animals listed under this schedule are protected, but their hunting does not attract high penalties or severe punishments. But there is a procedure that can be applied to term these animals as vermins, Javadekar said.
According to him, Section 62 of the wildlife Act empowers the Centre to declare any wild animal, apart from rare and endangered species, to be classified as vermins, for a specified period of time.
The states’ response is crucial as information on man-animal conflict can be utilised by the ministry to declare such animals as vermins. The office memorandum sent to the states lays the rules and regulations under which the hunting of these animals can be carried out. The ministry is now awaiting the response from states.
Let us stop this madness!
