The Wild Life Protect Act (WLPA), 1972 currently has six schedules that assign varying degrees of protection to animals and plants.
- Under Schedule I and II of the Act, for instance, animals and birds such as tigers and elephants are offered the highest protection.
- Schedule V of the WLPA lists species classified as ‘vermin’. The schedule lists common crows, fruit bats, rats and mice, which may be hunted freely.
- The act does not define the word ‘vermin’.
- The WLPA’s 62nd section grants the central government the power to declare any wild animal, other than those specified in Schedule I and Schedule II as ‘vermin’ for any area and a specified period.
- Vermin are usually considered problem or nuisance animals that attack humans, crops, livestock or property.
- In order to prevent human-wildlife conflicts, several states in the past have petitioned to declare various animals to be ‘vermin’, including elephants, Indian porcupine, bonnet macaque, common langur and barking deer.
- In 2016, the Centre declared rhesus monkeys in Himachal Pradesh, wild boar in Uttarakhand and Nilgai in Bihar to be ‘vermin’.
- The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 brings in a major change by reducing the number of schedules from six to four.
- It proposes to remove Schedule V completely. This gives the Centre direct power to declare any species to be ‘vermin’ and make way for them to be freely hunted.
- Hence, the procedure to declare animals to be ‘vermin’ becomes easier and the number of species labelled ‘vermin’ also increases.
(DTE)
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