Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran has condemned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maneka Gandhi for her reported statement that “the Forest and Wildlife departments of Kerala was the worst in the country”.
She had made the remark against the backdrop of the death of a sloth bear that fell into a well in Vellanad on the fringes of the Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries in Thiruvananthapuram. She had criticised the Forest department’s handling of the rescue mission after the animal drowned in the well on April 20.
Claiming the incident an isolated case, Mr. Saseendran said the bear could not be saved despite the “best of efforts put in by our officers”. “Our heart goes out to the animal which lost its life. But, blowing this unfortunate, one-off incident out of all proportions and giving it a wrong tone and tenor by making such a derogatory statement against the Kerala Forest Department is highly deplorable,” he said in a letter sent to her.
Elaborating on the forest and wildlife conservation efforts that had been “widely acclaimed nationally and internationally”, the Minister pointed out that the Periyar Tiger Reserve secured the first position in the country as the best-managed tiger reserve in the latest Census Report on Tigers and the Status of the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Tiger Reserves in India.
The Parambikulam Tiger Reserve had also been consistently rated as one among the top performing tiger reserves for the past several years.
The Forest department, which undertakes numerous wildlife rescue operations, had saved animals, including elephants, tigers, leopards, bears, ungulates and snakes, under difficult circumstances.
On the other hand, 637 human deaths and many serious injuries had been reported in the State from 2016 to 2022. Though 115 people were killed by wild elephants during the period, only three such elephants had been tranquilised and kept in captivity. While five people were killed by tigers, only two tigers had been tranquilised and captured.
Urging Ms. Gandhi to desist from making such “callous statements”, Mr. Saseendran invited her to Kerala to learn about the efforts made to conserve flora and fauna in the State.
