The Centre has turned down Kerala government's formal request to kill Schedule I animals like tigers, leopards and elephants that emerge as a threat to human lives and property.

Kerala's longstanding demand to declare wild boars (Schedule II animal) that destroy crops as vermin and mass-kill them like they were rodents or crows has also been rejected.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in its reply to Kerala's letter on June 6 seeking a licence to kill, declined to sanction any measure that would compromise the safeguards laid down in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had repeatedly ridiculed what he called the "labyrinthine" bureaucratic processes laid down in the law to deal with dangerous wild animals like tigers and leopards. Rather than a brusque rejection, the MOEFCC letter adopts the path of gentle persuasion. "Wild animals are listed in Schedule I considering their ecological and cultural status. Such species are often threatened or endangered and therefore, listing them in Schedule I accords them highest degree of protection against hunting," the MOEFCC letter said.

Clearly, the Centre fears a surge in hunting of Schedule I animals if the legal protections are slackened even a bit. As for declaring wild boars as vermins and exterminating them, the Centre bluntly states that Section 11(1) (B) of the 1972 Act was enough to take care of the issue.

Section 11(1)(B) empowers the Chief Wildlife Warden or 'any authorised officer' to sanction the killing of dangerous Schedule II animals like wild boars if they are found dangerous.

"These provisions would serve the purpose of site specific management of the population of such animals as well as maintain a health ecosystem instead of having generic provisions of declaring species as vermins," the MOEFCC letter said. Mass culling, therefore, has been ruled out.

The Wildlife Act prohibits hunting of any wild animal specified in Schedule I and Schedule II. However, it is not as if there is an absolute ban on killing problematic animals listed in Schedule I and II. In extraordinary situations, they can be killed, but only as a last resort.

In the case of Schedule I animals, only the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW), the highest forest official in a state, can act. "The Chief Wildlife Warden may, if he is satisfied that any wild animal specified in Schedule I has become dangerous to human life or is so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery, by order in writing and stating the reasons therefore, permit any person to hunt such animal or cause such animal to be hunted," Section 11(1) of the 1972 Act says.

But it is not enough that he is convinced of the danger. The CWW can issue the shoot at sight orders only after he has attempted and failed to capture or tranquilise and then translocate the animal. It is this dragged out process that the Chief Minister had made fun of.

In the case of Schedule II animals, the CWW or 'any authorised officer' who is convinced that there is a threat can, through a written order, grant permission to kill. For taming Schedule II animals, the law does not stipulate the capture-tranquilisation-translocation options.

The LDF government, exploiting the vagueness of the 'any authorised officer' clause, has through an executive order in 2022 made heads of local bodies 'honorary chief wildlife wardens' with the power to order the killing of dangerous Schedule II animals like wild pigs. These 'honorary chief wildlife wardens', in turn, can delegate their licence to kill to designated persons to do the job.