Hunting neel gai to be legalized?

NEW DELHI: In a move to resolve increasing man-animal conflict, especially tho- se causing damage to crops, the environment ministry on Monday said it has sought report from the states to declare certain over-bred animals as vermin for a limited period of time.

Once being declared vermin, that particular species can be hunted without restriction.

“We had issued a circular in this regard earlier also. In areas where farmers are facing huge problems due to animals like blue bull ( neel gai) and wild boar, there is a procedure to declare them as ‘vermin’ for a particular period of time,” environment minister Prakash Javadekar said. “As soon as we get states' response on this, we will give them permission to decalre such animals as 'vermin' for a limited period of time,” he said.

If implemented, it will apply to wild animals listed in various schedules of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) of 1972. The provisions to declare wild animals as problem animals are already there in the WPA, the minister said.

Javadekar also said that the government has planned three new tiger reserves — Bor in Maharashtra, Rajaji in Uttarakhand and Pilibhit in UP.