Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran has alleged that Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MOEFCC) Bhupender Yadav’s statements on the Wildlife Protection Act are baseless and contradictory.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Mr. Yadav had said that the Chief Wildlife Warden was empowered to trap, catch, and, if necessary, shoot problematic wildlife according to Section 11 of the Act, the Union government was giving an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh to the kin of victims, and the ex gratia could be allocated from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). It was suspected that such statements were made with political intentions, Mr. Saseendran said.
Many norms of the Act as well as the standard operating procedures, guidelines and advisories issued by the Central government and its agencies from time to time to handle problematic tigers and elephants were not practical and made the Act more rigid, Mr. Saseendran said.
