Indian Express: Pune: Tuesday,
September 13, 2016.
Over a month
ago, Maneka Gandhi had expressed anger for the Environment Ministry’s move of
declaring some wild animals as a vermin in a few states for a period of one
year. While in Bihar, two wild animals blue bull (nilgai) and wild boar have been declared as vermin for one year till December 2016, a copy of the
Bihar’s proposal to the Ministry accessed under Right To Information (RTI) Act,
shows that the state intended to continue culling nilgai and wild boar for a
period of five years in 31 districts.
The proposal
by Department of Environment and Forests, Bihar Government, dated August 12,
2015, reads, “People of Bihar are dependent on agriculture. Out of several
kinds of wild animals present outside the protected area, two animals blue
bull and wild boar have been destroying agricultural crops of the people on
large scale and have become a menace.” It further reads, “It is requested to
kindly consider the proposal and exercise the power conferred under section 62
of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 to declare blue bull and wild boar as
vermin for the period of five year in the state of Bihar.”
The proposal
does not specify any measures adopted by the state to mitigate the problem
except that it has been compensating the affected persons for loss of life and
property and the department has been distributing around Rs 50 lakhs every year
as compensation, but “people are not satisfied and demand permanent solution.
Due to its religious name, even government officials and people do not kill
it.”
Nilgai, in
India, comes under Schedule III of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. And as
per Section 62 of the Wild Life Protection Act, the Central Government may, by
notification, declare any wild animal other than those specified in Schedule I
and Part II of Schedule II to be vermin for any area and for such period as may
be specified therein and so long as such notification is in force, such wild
animal shall be deemed to have been included in Schedule V. In the list of
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN), nilgai is categorized as an animal of ‘Least Concern’.
Delhi-based
animal activist Naresh Kadyan said, “Declaring any animal a vermin for a period
of five years, is a sure-shot way of making it extinct in that place. Culling
an animal is not a solution. There are scientific ways of tackling such a
problem. Firstly, they should have carried out a census and recognised the
places where there is surplus population. They could have been relocated.
Animals like nilgai and wild boar are an essential parts of the food chain and
by culling it, we are disturbing the food chain and indirectly destroying the
prey of other wild animals who feed on them.”
A number of
RTI queries were shot by The Indian Express to the Ministry of Environment,
Forests and Climate Change. However, the answers to different queries seem
ambiguous. To the RTI query that asks After the state government seeks
permission to declare a particular animal a vermin, how does the Ministry cross
checks the facts before issuing the permission?, the reply says “Proposals
from the State Government are considered under Wild Life Protection Act, 1972
and in accordance with advisories of the Ministry.”
For two other
RTI queries “After an animal is declared vermin, is there a restriction on
the number of animals that can be killed in the state seeking permission for
culling” and “What methodology is adopted by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests to keep track on the number of vermin animals culled in the state.”
the Ministry’s response read, “No such information available in the Ministry.”
Bihar
environment and forest department principal secretary Vivek Kumar Singh told
The Indian Express: “Though we had sought permission for culling of nilgai for
five years, we have got permission for culling from December 1 last year to
November 1 this year. It took place in Mokama near Patna and Buxar but we do
not document culling figures, which may be very less as there has been
protests. But culling is still officially permitted till November 1”.
Another
senior official in state environment and forests department informed added
state board of wildlife headed by CM Nitish Kumar in its meeting held on June
15 in 2015 decided to allow killing of Nilgai to control population and prevent
damage to agricultural fields in the state. The proposal was later forwarded to
union forest ministry to declare Nilgai as vermin under provisions of Wildlife
Protection Act and allow their killing for five years. The centre later
sanctioned the proposal but allowed killing of the Nilgai for only one year.
A few weeks
ago, Bihar chief minister commented on cow vigilantism and said, “If the cow
protectors have so much of sympathy towards ‘gai and nilgai’ then they should
keep them at their shakhas. Don’t let them roam in fields and trouble farmers.”
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