In December last year, the Environment Ministry had passed a memorandum allowing states to treat wild animals that destroy crops as vermin and grant permission to kill them. It is unclear why Gandhi took up the issue on Thursday.
She alleged that the Environment Ministry, headed by Prakash Javadekar, has issued letters to every state, allowing the killing of animals like elephants, wild boars and monkeys.
Last year, Javadekar had said that in areas where farmers are facing huge problems because of animals that cause "nuisance", such as blue bull and wild boar, they can be declared vermin for a particular span of time. "We will give states the permission to kill such animals," he had said.
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