In a significant relief to the members of KIFA, the Kerala High Court on Friday passed an interim order directing that the Chief Wild Life Warden shall permit them in terms of Section 11(1)(b) of the Wildlife Protection Act to hunt wild boars approaching their agricultural lands and the compliance of the same was to be reported to the Court within one month.
Justice PB Suresh Kumar while passing the interim order remarked that such a direction was necessary considering that it is admitted that the steps taken by the State machinery to tackle the wild boar menace have not yielded results. Therefore, it was observed that the court deems it appropriate to pass an interim order directing the Chief Wild Life Warden shall permit the Petitioners to hunt the wild boars coming to agricultural lands of the petitioners. The operative portion of the order read as “Insofar as it is seen that the properties of the petitioners are under threat of the attack of the wild boars and insofar as the stand of the State Government is that the steps taken under Section 11(1)(b) of the Act to avert the said menace did not yield any result and that the only alternative to protect the interests of the farmers is to declare wild boars as vermin in specified areas in the State, I deem it appropriate to pass an interim order directing the Chief Wildlife Warden to permit the petitioners to hunt wild boars in the areas where their agricultural lands are situated, as provided for in Section 11(1)(b) of the Act. Ordered accordingly. The direction aforesaid shall be complied with, within a month’.
The interim order was passed after noting that the efforts of the State Government to get wild boar declared as ‘vermin’ as per Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act have not yielded results. Once an animal is declared as a “vermin”, people can kill or trap such an animal without risk of criminal prosecution. The Central Government, which is to approve such a proposal, is yet to take the final decision on the State’s proposal. Against this backdrop, the court decided to direct the Chief Wildlife Warden to invoke powers under Section 11(1)(b) of the Act to permit farmers to hunt attacking wild boars. Under Section 11(1)(b) of the Act, the Chief Wildlife Warden is empowered, if he is satisfied that any wild animal specified in Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV, has become dangerous to human life or to property including standing crops on any land, to permit by order in writing any person to hunt such animal or group of animals in that specified area. The order was passed in a writ petition (WP(C) 12496/2021) filed by farmers represented by Advocate Alex M Scaria. A group of six farmers had moved the Court this year seeking permission to hunt wild boar entering their agricultural land.
Congratulations to KIFA for their achievements.