Last year, the Bihar government had asked the Centre to allow professional shooters accredited by the Centre to kill nilgai
Highlights
- Supreme Court to examine plea against nilgai culling in Bihar on July 15
- Centre had allowed culling for one year after Bihar sought permission
- Bihar had said nilgais were destroying crops in some districts
The Supreme Court today refused to put on hold culling of nilgai or blue bulls in Bihar, wild boars in Uttarakhand and a monkey species in Himachal Pradesh, saying it will examine a petition to stop it on July 15.
Last year, the Bihar government had asked the Centre to allow professional shooters accredited by the Centre to kill nilgai, arguing that acres of crops were being destroyed in areas where they exist in large numbers.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests had then issued a notification labelling nilgai "vermin", equating it with pests and paving the way for its culling. Similar permissions were given to Uttarakhand for wild boar and nilgai and to Himachal Pradesh for rhesus macaques.
Defending the decision, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had said "laws require that if a state says its farmers are being adversely impacted, the Centre's acquiescence is required" and added that the permit to shoot blue bulls is valid till November in 31 of Bihar's 39 districts. Union minister Maneka Gandhi, famous for her activism in animal rights, however disagrees with her cabinet colleague and has called the decision a "massacre."
The petitioners - activist Gauri Maulekhi, Wild Life Rescue and Protection Centre and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) have challenged the Centre in court alleging that it cleared such an order without any study. It has also opposed a provision in law that allows the Centre to permit "mindless slaughter of protected animals."
The Supreme Court has asked the petitioners to submit a presentation to the Centre and wants the Centre to respond within a fortnight.
The Centre says permission to cull nilgai in Bihar was given in December last and that the validity of the permission is one year.