Ecologist Madhav Gadgil said on Saturday that the Forest Department has to be brought under the proper control of people as it is the only government department that refuses to report to the district panchayats in the country.
“It is an agency to protect the Nature. If common people react against the department’s tyranny, they are labelled as anti-Nature. This must stop,” he said in his keynote address at the webinar on the “Role of environmental revival in the construction of Nava Keralam’ organized by Abhimanyu Memorial Trust here.
Referring to the rampant destruction of the green cover in Goa to aid the interests of multi-national coal importers, Mr. Gadgil accused the Forest Department of remaining a mute spectator in such cases by adopting a position that it was a government affair. “At the same time, they infringe upon the rights of the farmers to kill the wild boars destroying their property, citing legislations on conservation and wildlife protection,” he said.
Stating that development and Nature conservation were equally important, Mr. Gadgil said that the Forest Department was subsidizing the rich and extorting the poor.
“Farmers should have the freedom to kill the wild boars destroying their property and to sell and consume its meat. We should have a public interest litigation against the anti-people legislations that restrict killing of wild boars. Wildlife protection without any reservation is not feasible,” he said.
Mr. Gadgil said that countries like Sweden and Norway have declared that wildlife remains a renewable resource. “The best way to conserve it is through regulated harvest. At the scientific level – there is no question that wildlife protection without any reservation is not feasible. Population of every animal will continue to grow,” he said.
The noted ecologist said that wild pigs have escaped predation and food limitations because they can invade the farmer’s land. “Many farmers have told me about the large-scale destruction of their crops by wild boars. They will continue to explode. It is not feasible to have that kind of protection,” he said.
