Census of wild boars, blue bulls soon

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 31

The wildlife wing of the Forest Department will undertake a survey to assess the population of wild boars, blue bulls and sambars in the state so that a case can be prepared for declaring these wild animals as vermin in areas where their number is abnormally high.

The Forest Department last week issued a notification, where it has been decided to give Rs 300 to anyone who kills a monkey but not even a single animal has been killed so far. As of now monkeys have been declared vermin within Shimla Municipal Corporation and in 38 other tehsils of the state. Barring leopard and monkey census, the wildlife department has so far not undertaken population estimation of any other animal in the state till now.

The decision to undertake population estimation of wild boars, blue bulls and sambhars comes in wake of the concern expressed by legislators during the monsoon session of the Assembly on the devastation being caused by all these wild animals to crops. They also pointed out that these animals, whose number was on the rise in many parts of the state, had become a threat to not just crops but also to humans.

“Directions have been issued to officials of the department to undertake population estimation of wild boars, blue bulls and sambars so that in case of exceedingly high numbers, a proposal can be moved to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to declared them vermins,” said Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri. He added that the request for extending the time period for scientific culling of monkeys in Shimla had also been sent to the Centre.

Bharmouri said though there were no reports of monkeys having been killed anywhere in the state as of now there was no proposal to engage the services of professional shooters to eliminate monkeys.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden SS Negi (APCCF) said the exercise of getting population estimation of these three wild animals was an exhaustive and time consuming task. Hence, the exact figures about them would be known after some time. “In case the number of any of these animals is found to be exceedingly high in a particular area, we will move a case for declaring them vermin,” he confirmed.

Interestingly, the Forest Department has sought details of the total number of gun licence holders in the state from the Home Department to see if the people are well equipped to kill the monkeys. “The number of gun licence holders in the state stands at 65,000 so I don’t think there is any need for the department to engage shooters,” the minister said.