THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) is trying to extract political mileage from the human-wild animal conflict raging in the State.
As part of the agitation, the UDF launched a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Wayanad on February 13. This is the second hartal in the district in as many days. The Farmers Relief Forum and the Kerala unit of the All India Trinamool Congress had called for a hartal on February 12.
The UDF leaders have accused the Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government of not taking any steps to prevent the wild animal attacks. The Catholic Church has also upped the ante against the Kerala Government. For instance, the Indian Farmers’ Movement(INFARM) under the Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Kanjirappally has demanded the resignation of Forest Minister A. K. Saseendran.
The remarks have come against the backdrop of the rising anger of the Church against what it called the government’s ‘inaction’.
That the agitation is politically motivated is evident from the fact that the UDF is silent on the Union Government’s steadfast and totally illogical refusal to amend the Wildlife Protection Act, which alone can enable the States to eliminate the wild animals taking a toll on human lives in the State, especially in Wayanad district.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also deplored the Union Government’s refusal to amend the Act in the face of rising animal attacks. The Chief Minister said the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 is coming in the way of State Government taking effective steps to mitigate the human-wildlife conflict. The law bars the State Government from neutralising wild animals threatening life and property. The State Assembly, the CM pointed out, had adopted a unanimous resolution urging the Union Government to amend the Act so that state governments can take deterrent action to end the conflict.
“The Centre has mandated a standard operating procedure for handling tigers, leopards and wild elephants that stray into human habitations. It entails the formation of a six-member committee to review the situation. The predator would have left the area by the time the committee met and arrived at a decision. The Central Act prohibits the killing of tigers that are not proven human-killers. The Centre has repeatedly rejected the State’s petition to declare feral boars, which pose an existential threat to farmers, as vermin marked for elimination,” he said.
Meanwhile, the State Government is taking all steps it can under the existing rules to solve the serious problem. The State Government has decided, to cite an example, to form 10 missions to tackle the growing human-wildlife conflict. As per the decision, notices will be issued to owners of forest estates to urgently clear the wildlife growth on the estates.
A real-time monitoring system will be set up to track the presence of wild animals near residential areas.
The Government has also decided to follow up on the proposal submitted to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to give advanced facilities and systems to the 28 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) operating in the State.
The Mission mandates real-time monitoring of elephant passes and regular movement routes of wild animals in all the forest divisions of the State. As for Mission Primary Response Teams, they will ensure the formation of Primary Voluntary Response Teams to make sure time-bound intervention in human-wildlife conflict issues in the State.
Through the Mission Tribal Knowledge, the Department of Forests and Wildlife, in association with the Kerala Forest Research Centre, will initiate collection of traditional knowledge adopted by 36 tribal communities of Kerala for human`-wildlife conflict mitigation.
The Mission food, Fodder and Water will prevent wild animals from being attracted to inhabited areas and ensure that they have access to food and water within the forest itself. Mission Bonnet Macaque and Mission Wild Pig are designed to control the menace of wild monkeys through legal means and restrict the population of wild pigs. Mission SARPA will eliminate snakebite deaths by strengthening the production and distribution of anti-venom besides strengthening awareness among the people.
Mission Solar Fencing has pressed as many as 848 km of solar fencing into operation. Last but not the least, Mission Sensitisation to Public will conduct awareness campaigns on human-wildlife conflicts in each region. (IPA Service)
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