The majestic India’s national bird, peacock, may have its wings clipped in Goa after State Agriculture Minister Ramesh Tawadkar said officials were in the process of deciding as to whether the bird, along with other species of fauna like wild boars, monkeys, even the Great Indian bison, the State animal of Goa, could be classified as vermin or nuisance animals and birds and culled as and when required.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Tawadkar, who hails from the hilly and agrarian constituency of Canacona, in South Goa, said, “Some farmers have told us that peacocks also were damaging their crops in hilly forest areas. The committee will now also assess whether peacocks should be declared vermin or nuisance species.”
The Agriculture Minister also said the Government had already shown its commitment to classify other wild animals, which cause damage to agricultural and horticultural crops as vermin, in the Winter Session of the Goa legislative Assembly, which concluded in January.
“We have said in the last Assembly (sitting) about monkeys and wild boars creating a nuisance for farmers and that a committee would be formed to assess and declare them as vermin,” Tawadkar said.
At a public function at Margao town in South Goa on Thursday, Tawadkar had also explained how herds of the Great Indian bison, the State’s national animal, were proving to be a bane for farmers.
Both the peacock and bison are covered under the Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
Parsekar in January had assured the Goa legislative assembly that wild animals, especially monkeys and wild boars, damaging agricultural and horticultural crops, would be classified as vermin or nuisance animals.
“Time has come to classify some of these animals as vermin. Monkeys and wild boar regularly destroy fields. We have already initiated steps based on instruction of central government. We will do it as early as possible,” Parsekar had said.
Rapid urbanisation and encroachment in forested areas has in turn triggered a series of instances of human-wild animal conflicts in Goa in recent times.