Two ministers of the Narendra Modi government are at loggerheads over the proposal to sanction the killing of animals belonging to the endangered species.
Union Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi has hit out at Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar accusing him of giving sanction to state governments to kill animals including blue bull (Nilgai) and wild boar.
"The Environment Minister is writing to every state to kill whichever animal people want. In Bengal he gave permission to kill elephants, in Himachal he gave permission to kill monkeys, in Goa it were the peacocks. The Chandrapur massacre involves killing of 53 wild boars and the permission for killing 50 more has been granted. His own wildlife department has said that they don't want to kill. I don't know what is with the brutal killing of so many animals," Maneka, an animal rights activists too, said.
Maneka's objection comes after the Environment Ministry allowed the culling of Nilgai, wild boars, elephants, peacock and monkeys in different states. The demand to kill these animals was accepted on account of the damage they cause to crops, property and life.
The Ministry's memorandum passed in December 2015 states that wild animals which destroy crops should be treated as vermin.
The Ministry’s move has drawn flak from animal rights groups. "The human-animal conflict is rising. We are encroaching into the animal land. Instead of ordering the animals to be killed, animal land should not be encroached upon and if not possible, should relocate them. Killing animals is not a solution," Peta official Nikunj Sharma said.
However, Javadekar said that man-animal conflict was on the rise and farmers were finding it tough to protect their crops and property. "According to law if farmers are suffering and their crop is being damaged and state government sends a letter to centre on the issue, then a decision is taken within the ambit of law. The action is taken in the legal framework in a scientific manner," Javadekar said.
This is not the first time that Maneka has taken on leaders from her own party. Earlier, too, she had exerted pressure on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership to sack the party MLA who was allegedly involved in the attack on Uttarakhand Police Horse Shaktimaan. The horse’s hind leg broke during a protest by the BJP in Dehradun and it died after a few days.
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