The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the Bihar and Himachal Pradesh Governments on a plea filed by BJD MP Anubhav Mohanty against permitting vermin killings there to stop damage to standing crops, saying ways have to be found to control the “human-animal” conflict.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde took note of the submission of senior advocate Siddharth Luthra that a large number of wild animals like ”nilgai” (blue bulls) have been killed to save crops.
“We need a solution. No solution lies only in saying that don’t kill them. Look at it in terms of the solution. We are tagging this matter along with elephant matter of Kerala where it was killed by pineapple stuffed with crackers,” said the apex court Bench.
Luthra said the expansion of the human population into the territories of wild animals is one of the reasons of the problem.
There are rubber bullets which can be used instead of killing of such animals, the court said and asked Luthra to suggest measures to deal with the issue.
Earlier, the Centre had approved the culling of wild animals such as nilgai and wild boar in Bihar and rhesus monkey in Himachal Pradesh by declaring them ”vermin” under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in December 2015, following requests from these States as they cause harm to the resident population and standing crops.
