In the wake of recent war of words between Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar and his Cabinet colleague on culling of animals, Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday voiced his opinion against such a move and said that the animals should be sent to a safer place so that they don't damage crops.
"On the behalf of the Lok Janashakti Party, I will only say that such an extreme step should not have been taken. It definitely causes damages to the crops, which of course cause more problems to the farmers, but killing them is an extreme step. It would have been a better step if the blue bulls are sent to a safer place," Chirag told ANI.
The LJP leader expressed hope that the two concerned ministers are very capable enough to take a call on the future course of action with regard to this matter.
"The farmers should be the priority, but even then it should be kept in mind that animals are not hurt," he added.
Maneka Gandhi earlier in the day trained guns at the Environment Ministry while accusing it of frivolously granting permission to kill innocent animals.
Commenting on reports of a large number of deer being killed in Bihar's Patna city, Gandhi told ANI that she does not understand this 'lust' to kill.
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According to reports, the Union Government has recently declared monkeys as 'vermin' and cleared the decks for their large-scale extermination in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla city.
Meanwhile, a call was made in Goa to cull India's national bird peacock citing that the bird is creating a problem for farmers and destroying their cultivation in rural areas.
Similarly, the local forest department in Maharashtra culled a whooping 300 animals in the past few months after several farmers reported huge losses due to crop raids.
Javadekar earlier today countered Maneka Gandhi's charges that the Environment Ministry thrived in the killing of innocent animals and asserted that such decisions were taken keeping scientific facts in mind to help those affected by such animals.
"I will not react on who said what. But as per the law, we must help the farmers whose crops get ruined. The state government sends us a proposal and only then we initiate a step for a specific region and for a specific period of time keeping the scientific facts in mind," he told the media here.
