Lok Sabha Question No. 262 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-04-26
Subject: Hunting of Wild Animals
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: RAHUL KASWAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 262

TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.04.2016

## Hunting of Wild Animals

## 262. SHRI RAHUL KASWAN:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a)      whether the Government proposes to allow hunting of certain wild animals damaging the crops of farmers; and
- (b)   if so, details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  received  any  complaints  from  farmers  regarding  loss  of crops due to increasing wild animals/ foreign breed of animal population;
- (d)  if so, the details thereof; and
- (e)   whether the  Government proposes to take any concrete and effective measures for the redressal of this problem and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  FOR  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) & (b) The Ministry has, vide Gazette Notifications, transferred some Wild animals such as Blue  Bull,  Wild  Pig,  and  Rhesus  Macaque  monkey  to  Schedule  V  of  the  Wild  Life (Protection)  Act  1972  in  certain  areas  of  Bihar,  Uttarakhand,  and  Himachal  Pradesh  for  a specified  time,  and  in  areas  outside  the  forest  areas.  Such  notifications  empower  the  State Government  authorities  to  undertake  measures  necessary  for  controlling  the  population  of wild animals straying outside the forest areas and such measures would not be counted as an offense during the validity of these notifications.

(c)  &  (d)  The  Ministry  has  received  requests  from  the  State  Governments  of  Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh to issue the notifications as mentioned above, based on the  complaints  received  from  the  farmers  and  assessments  made  thereof  in  view  of  the negative human-wildlife interactions.

(e) Keeping in view the losses to crops inflicted by the wild animals, this Ministry, on 24 th December, 2014 issued an advisory to the States highlighting the legal provisions under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to deal with the human-wildlife conflict situations. Vide this  advisory, Ministry has also sought proposals from State/Union Territory Governments, after objective assessment of the situation with details of the areas in which notification under section  62  of  the  Act,  listing  wild  animals  in  Schedule  V  for  specified  period,  could  be helpful in management of conflict.

Further,  Ministry  has  also  issued  a  detailed  advisory  on  1st  June,  2015  to  the State/Union Territory Governments regarding the priority actions for management of human wildlife  conflict.  The  State/UT  Governments  have  been  requested  to  institute  a  'Human Wildlife  Management  Strategy'  along  with  other  suggested measures  for the proper management and prevention of negative human wildlife interactions.

The Central Government provides financial assistance to the States/ Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of 'Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats',  'Project  Tiger'  and  'Project  Elephant'  for  the  management  of  wildlife  and  its habitats  in  the  country,  which inter  alia helps  in  preventing  negative  human-animal interaction.  The  activities  supported  under  the  Schemes inter  alia include  construction /erection of physical barriers, such as barbed wire fence, solar powered electric fence, biofencing using cactus, boundary walls etc. to prevent the entry of wild animals into crop fields; improvement of wildlife habitat of wild animals by augmenting the availability of food and water in forest areas to reduce the entry of animals from forests to habitations and setting up of  anti-depredation  squads  to  drive  away  problematic  animals.  As  an  immediate  measure, states can also provide ex-gratia relief to the victims of wildlife attack on life or property.

****