New Delhi: An operation to cull Nilgai herds in Bihar’s Mokama district appears to have created a discord between two senior ministers of BJP-led NDA government at the Centre - Maneka Gandhi and Prakash Javadekar.
After Javadekar’s Environment ministry agreed to Bihar's demand by declaring Nilgai to be "vermin" on account of the damage they inflict on "life and property” in December last year, the state government has roped in shooters to kill Nilgais. In the last three days alone in Mokama, over 250 Nilgais have been shot down.
Nawab Shafat Ali Khan, a Hyderabad-based hunter, has been hired by district administration to shoot down Nilgais roaming in open fields.
Reacting to the development, Woman and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who also happens to be a passionate animal rights activist, slammed the MoEF and said that she could not understand its ‘lust for killing’ animals. “Such a thing has never happened in India before. It is a matter of shame that it is happening in BJP’s rule. Nitish Kumar should also be equally ashamed,” she said.
Maneka said that the ministry was “writing letters to every state and allowing the killing of animals like elephants, wild boars and monkeys”.
"The Environment Ministry here is writing to every state asking them which animal they want to kill and they will grant permission. In Bengal they gave permission to kill elephants, in Himachal they gave permission to kill monkeys, in Goa they gave permission to kill peacocks," said Gandhi.
"The point which should be noted is that no one from Bihar, no head of any village or any farmer asked for the killing. And it is a matter of shame that they had to get shooters from Hyderabad to kill animals," she added.
According to reports, the Union government recently declared monkeys as 'vermin and cleared the decks for their large-scale extermination in Shimla. In Goa, a call was made to cull India's national bird peacock citing the reason that the bird is creating a problem for farmers and are destroying their cultivation in rural areas.
Similarly, in Maharashtra the local forest department culled a 300 animals in the past few months after several farmers reported huge losses due to crop raids.
Prakash Javadekar, however, has justified the decision of his ministry and said, “When state govts write to us about farmers suffering due to crop damage by animals, then such permissions are given.”
He clarified that the ministry acts on the recommendation of state governments based on an old law and it is not unprecedented to grant such permissions.
