The Union ministry of environment and forest came under fire on Thursday over its decision to declare Rhesus Macaque monkeys as 'vermin' in ten districts of Himachal Pradesh, as it has caused loss to property and croplands. This will allow the state to kill them without special permissions. Leading the charge against minister for environment and forests Prakash Javadekar was his cabinet colleague Maneka Gandhi, who is also an animal rights activist.
However, Himachal Pradesh will not be able to implement the order immediately as a matter on this issue is pending in the high court, said officials from the state's forest department. The high court has stayed killing of monkeys.
The ministry's decision has drawn intense criticism from environmentalists for granting similar permissions in Bihar, Uttarakhand to kill nilgai and wild boar. Maneka came down heavily on Javadekar for permitting culling of animals and termed it "lust for killing". She said the environment ministry waswriting to every state government, allowing them to provide a list of animals that can be killed so that the Centre can give permission.
"This is happening for the first time. I don't understand this lust for killing of animals," she said.
Maneka said that the ministry is giving permissions to kill animals such as monkeys in Himachal Pradesh and peacocks in Goa while wild boars are being killed in Chandrapur. Maneka also added that the environment ministry's wildlife department is not in favour of killing animals.
The ministry has also taken this decision at a time when they have sent a proposal to the agriculture ministry for insuring farmers against damages caused by elephant raids. In 2014-15, state and central agencies paid Rs34.5 crore compensation to farmers for crop damages caused by elephants.
In response to the criticism against its decision, the environment and forest ministry issued a statement to defend the move and claimed that they have given permission for "scientific management" of the animals for a limited period of time in specific areas in Uttarakhand, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh. It said that blue bulls and wild boars were declared vermins after the ministry received complaints from members of Parliament, state governments and farmers on the crop damage they caused in certain parts of the country.
"Nothing has been done beyond the procedure prescribed by law. As per the provision of law, if there are complaints about the wildlife conflict, thenthe state government has to submit the proposal. Till date, five states have submitted the proposal. Proposals of Maharashtra and Gujarat are still being examined," said SK Khanduri, inspector general of wildlife, ministry of environment, forests and climate change.
Officials of the Himachal Pradesh forest department told dna that it had sent a proposal to declare Rhesus Macaque as vermin in February this year. According to estimates, monkeys have caused damage to the tune of nearly Rs160 crore in the year 2013-14. Hamirpur, Kangra and Mandi are the districts most affected, forest officials said.
