Himachal HC stays grant of culling permits

A special bench of Chief Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice V K Ahuja,constituted for hearing of the matter,took up the petition filed by the Kasauli and Chandigarh units of People for Animals (PFA) and observed that if the government thought the problem of farmers could be tackled by annihilation of the problematic monkeys,“we are afraid the state has not understood and applied its mind to study psychological behaviour of monkeys and also the basic intention behind the WP Act,which is for their protection”.

The court ruled that killing of animals with the noblest intent of crop protection could only be used in inevitable and unavoidable situations as last resort. “Viewing the object of Wildlife Protection Act,1972,and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,the duty cast on the state (government) is that attempt is to be made to protect and not destroy wildlife,therefore other options need to be explored,” the court said. The chief justice asked the government to experiment and measure the impact of harmless methods and listed the case for March 5.

Talking to The Indian Express later,Additional Chief Secretary,Forest,Sudipto Roy said: “Immediately after the High Court’s decision,we started framing a proposal to be moved to Government of India for grant of funds to buy ammunition,in order to implement the court’s order of exploring option of air guns and shot guns. This is a costly affair and very less ammunition of this specification is available at our disposal.”

A mass movement for farmers’ rights was launched by NGO Kheti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti to apply for permits to kill monkeys and other animals like wild boars and neelgai in problematic areas. This campaign was challenged in the High Court by the PFA.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden A K Gulati submitted on Thursday that since November 1 to December 15,the state wildlife department had issued 259 permits and only 15 monkeys had been killed by six farmers during the period.

The bench,however,observed that “rural economy in the state has been badly hit due to monkey menace and farmers have also left many areas uncultivated”.

Gulati told the court that while sterilisation of monkeys would show results in the long term,the primate protection park at Taradevi in Shimla had failed to take off due to land issues. He submitted that the state was also thinking of exploring the option of using air guns and harmless rubber pellets,but due to shortage of funds nothing could be worked out.

The counsel for Animal Welfare Division of the Ministry of Environment and Forest argued that the state could not defend its inaction by reasons such as shortage of funds. He said Delhi had successfully translocated nearly 15,000 monkeys and Himachal could follow it.

The court said the state government should also continue looking for other methods of warding off animals from near the fields,like use of barbed fencing,fire and positioning trained dogs.

On August 25,2004,the High Court had directed the Centre to allot Rs 1.2 crore for four different projects to control monkey menace in the state. After granting Rs 20 lakh for awareness campaigns,the Government of India filed an SLP in the Supreme Court in January 2006,challenging the High Court order. The petition is still pending in the apex court.