The Supreme Court is all set to examine validity of the Centre's decisions to allow culling of wild boar, nilgai in Bihar, rhesus macaque monkey in Himachal Pradesh and also killing of wild boar in Uttarakhand.

The move in wake of a plea filed in the SC by an animal rights activist to quash a government order declaring some animals as vermin that allowed them to be culled.

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change declared Nilgai and wild boar as vermin in some districts of Bihar for one year on December 1, 2015.

In its second notification, the Ministry declared wild boar as vermin in some districts of Uttarakhand for a one-year period on February 3, 2016.
While, recently on May 24, 2016, it declared rhesus macaque (monkey) to be vermin in some districts of Himachal Pradesh.

“The impugned notifications have been passed in absolute disregard of the human-wildlife conflict plaguing the country and without any scientific survey backing them,” the plea said.

“The state is no longer responsible for safeguarding the life and well-being of such animals. The indiscriminate killing of these animals will have a detrimental effect on the food chain and in turn lead to an ecological imbalance,” the plea said.

It said the provisions of the Act “authorises the government to permit mindless slaughter of protected wildlife without any inquiry or investigation into the need for declaring protected species of wildlife as vermin for purpose of slaughter.”

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Nandini