‘Declare peacock, monkey, bison, langur as vermin too’

KERI: Recently, Goa state board of wildlife, following a meeting, had proposed to declare wild boar as vermin after conducting a scientific study, but, farmers from various parts of Sattari and Bicholim insist that monkey, gaur, peacock and langur also be included in the same list.
On October 12, the board, after deliberating over the representations received from several farmers’ associations and the Goa state horticulture corporation highlighting the losses suffered due to destruction of crops by wild animals, had decided to declare only the wild boar as vermin, and that too after conducting a scientific study.
But, agriculturists and horticulturists from various areas of Sattari and Bicholim, at a meeting held on October 18 at Laxmibai Memorial Hall, Valpoi, resolved to get the monkey, gaur, peacock and langur also declared as vermin .
Opposition leader Pratapsingh Rane, in the last two assembly sessions, had moved a private member’s bill to urge the government to take the needful steps to declare as vermin those wild animals that damaged crops.
In the last three years, 8,68, 645 has been disbursed by the directorate of agriculture and 4,61,000 by the forest department to claimants of crop damage by wild animals.
President of the Animal Rescue Squad, Bicholim, Amrut Singh told TOI, “Declaring some wild animals as vermin will not solve the actual problem. There is urgent need to have a policy framework to manage human-wildlife conflict. There is need for census of wild animals outside protected areas to understand why certain species are entering into conflict with human. Habitat loss, decline in predator population and drought-like situations are the main reasons for intensification of the man-wild animal conflict.”