Lately, the honorable chief minister of Goa had demanded the classification of Monkeys into the category of ‘Vermin’ claiming that they cause a lot of nuisance to the people. Based on the available information from the reliable sources, the national bird Peacock and state animal wild bison are also among the list to be labeled as the ‘Vermin’ by the government of Goa.
Goa state is considered to be a model state in India where most of the experiments are been carried out before applying it to the other states of India. It looks like perhaps, Goa government is in the process of trying out few things which the central government may plan to follow. This is just an estimation and not the statement. Last month the chief minister of Goa announced that government will classify the monkeys into the category of ‘Vermin’. It became the issue of controversy in the state. This issue was following to the earlier major issue of the classification of Coconut tree into ‘Grass’.
[su_expand more_text=”READ MORE” less_text=” ” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_style=”button” link_align=”center”] Now it is the agriculture minister of Goa Ramesh Talwadkar, who brought the issue of classification of Peacock into the category of ‘Vermin’. According to him, the government has decided to list Peacock, Monkey, wild Bison (Gaur) into the category of nuisance animals. “We have listed several wild species including the Monkey, wild bison and peacock as ‘Vermin’. They are creating the problems to the farmers by destroying the cultivation in the rural areas,” said Talwadkar.
It looks like this decision will create a big controversy and strong resentment amongst the environmentalists since the peacock is a national bird and the wild bison is declared as the protected species and it is also Goa’s state animal. The new development may make them vulnerable claims the sources. Mr. Talwadkar is very well aware of the fact that the peacock is a national bird and wild bison is a state animal and hence, according to him, the state government will follow the procedure to declare them as a ‘nuisance’.
According to Talwadkar, the government will compile the record of destructions made by these animals. “We will check as how many complaints are received from the farmers about the crop destruction by these animals,” he said. He further added that there are several complaints from the farmers demanding the action against these animals by declaring them ‘Vermin’.
The news in this regards also been published by BBC (British Broadcasting Corp) with the tagline ‘An Indian state has proposed reclassifying the country’s national bird – the peacock – as vermin’. This is a very serious issue which is now replicated in the entire media. BBC has highlighted the important points about the various decisions that have been taken by the Goa government that are apparently going against the desires of the environmentalists.
According to the report published by BBC, the statement of Talwadkar claims that the Wild Bison, Monkey, and Peacock are damaging the crops and would be culled under this new amendment. The shirking forest cover is compelling the wildlife to encroach the human habitat. The birds are currently protected under the India’s Wildlife Protection Act. 1972. The animal rights groups have opposed the move of government claiming that to remain on tourist map animal should be protected. “If Goa wants to remain on the tourism map people expect it to be a paradise for animals too,” said Poorva Joshipura from PETA India.
Goa government is in the process of preparing the list of animals for the recommendation to be classified in the category of ‘Vermin’ and the list already has the Monkey, Wild Bison and Peacock on the top of it. The state government is of the opinion that as per the centrally regulated Wild Life Animals Protection Act 1972 the animals listed in Schedule V are vermin which causes the threat to the society, spreads the diseases and destroys the crops and livestock can be hunted or culled without any restrictions.
According to the sources, these things have been carried out after the BJP (Narendra Modi) government came to the power. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has sent the advisory to all the states in India to suggest the list of such nuisance animals to declare them as vermin. Talwadkar is waiting to confirm this information to go ahead with the process of declaring the vermin based on the complaints received from the farmers.
It sometimes makes us wonder as why the governments to do not declare the criminals and corrupt people as Vermin since they are the one who creates the major nuisance into the society. Perhaps making that amendment may lead to getting some of the insiders into the trouble. If you think that this decision of the government is not in accordance with the commandment please do write it down in your valuable comments.
Source: Various Sources [/su_expand]
