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Greens move HC for boars

PIL against culling boars in HC

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government’s blanket order applicable across the state to cull wild boars using private shooting experts is facing a roadblock as city based wildlife activist Diya Banerjee has filed a public interest litigation in the Hyderabad High Court against the order.

The first hearing of the PIL has been scheduled on Monday. Wildlife activists have accused the state government of high handedness in dealing with the man wild boar conflict in the state, lack in following procedural norms and the forest department of acting under political pressure in issuing the culling orders.

The culling order issued by chief wildlife warden A.K. Srivastava is in clear violation of an advisory from the Union ministry of environment and forests to all state forest departments last year.

The Centre’s order said proposals should be made with clear description as per administrative boundaries, where a particular wildlife is to be declared vermin for culling and a scientific basis should be given for culling, like a study, consultation or survey. The Telangana state forest department has done neither of the two to justify culling.

The culling order does not state that female wild boars should not be culled as per rules. It also does not mention that wild boars should not be culled inside protected areas and reserved forests.

Last year, around November, in a goofup, a media release was issued by minister of environment Jogu Ramana’s office, declaring that anyone could kill a wild boar in Telangana state and no cases would be booked against them.

When forest officials were asked about it, they denied any such order and been issued. They said only forest department officials would be trained to cull wild boar if required, and outsiders would not be allowed to do the job.

Interestingly, six months after the goof-up, the forest department has done a U-turn and released an order which has legalised culling that too with help of private arms licence holders. Wild boarman conflict is rampant in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Karimnagar, districts, sources told this newspaper.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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