Maneka Gandhi slams Environment Ministry, says don’t understand this lust for killing animals

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi on Thursday slammed the Environment Ministry for granting permission to kill animals. Maneka who is also an animal rights activist said, “The Environment Ministry here is writing to every state asking them which animal they want to kill and they will grant permission. In Bengal they gave permission to kill elephants, in Himachal they gave permission to kill monkeys, in Goa they gave permission to kill peacocks.”

However, it could not be verified in what context the minister was speaking. Gandhi also added that it’s a shame that none of the locals want to kill deer, so to complete the task the environment ministry had to hire shooters from a different state.

200 nilgai or blue bulls were shot in Bihar in the last six days on which Gandhi objected and said that the endangered species has been compromised. Javadekar however says the permit to shoot the blue bulls is valid till November in 31 of Bihar's 39 districts.

Earlier on June 1, Maneka had also called for a nation-wide online protest to ban cow-slaughter. In Himachal Pradesh, Union Government had issued a notification and declared monkeys a vermin for a period of six months. This was done in response to the requests that had drawn authorities attention towards how it was affecting tourism.