A Petitioner has been filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus to declare barbaric practices to ward off wild animals as illegal and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, and a issuance of Guidelines for creation of Standard Operating Procedures to tackle such incidents and fulfilling the vacancies in Forest Forces across the States of the Union.
The petition has been filed by Advocate Shubham Awasthi. Petitioner belongs to Middle Strata of Society and has been pained by the incident, which happened in Kerala and hundreds of other incidents like it, waiting to unfold in various parts of India due to the dubious practice of using snares to scare animals. It is quite pertinent to mention here that such practices happen due to lack of scientific involvement and awareness about Animal Human Conflicts and lack of information about other ways of dealing with it.
Furthermore, there is an acute shortage of staff in Forest Forces to effectively manage this. The Constitution neither grants any absolute protection to the omission of duties that is unjust, nor exempts animal laws from the jurisdiction of the Legislature or the Judiciary.
CONTENTIONS IN PETITION
Indian Constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every Indian citizen to protect and improve wildlife in the country under Article 51- A (g). The chief laws relating to wildlife in India are found in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The Act prohibits the killing, poaching, trapping, poisoning, or harming in any other way, of any wild animal or bird. Section 9 of the act, prohibits the hunting of animals and thereby punishes the offense of imprisonment for 3 years and fine for Rs 25000. Union Government too had initiated “Project Elephant” in 1992. The Elephants Preservation Act, 1879, prohibits the killing and capture of wild elephants.
On 27th of May, a Pregnant Elephant succumbed to injuries caused by the eating of a Pineapple filled with Crackers which was left by the Villagers and Locals to ward off wild animals straying into the area which included their fields/property. It was again reported that this was not an isolated incident as another Elephant had died due to similar circumstances in Kerala. The Pregnant Elephant had her Jaws broken and Tongue severely damaged by the Crackers after which she chose to stand in the nearby river and she further succumbed to her injuries. It was pointed out by the Forest Officials that the Elephant had refused help when they tried to save her. Such an Act of desperation to save their crops by Farmers/Villagers in the vicinity of Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad District shows the level of desperation or helplessness of the Farmers/Villagers in these villages. It is quite a common practice to scare off wild animals or scare wild boars/Nilgai etc by using food stuff filled with crackers as a bait as the damage caused by these animals at times is severe and there happens to be no means to stop it. The Forest Department across India has failed in this endeavour to protect the Wildlife and Humankind due to a severe shortage of staff and lack of scientific measures being used by general populace. Further, the lack of information and communication regarding the matter from State government lead to media trial of the issue to mushroom on various media channels and platforms such as twitter which further resulted into harassment of Malayalis / Keralites as they were being portrayed as murderers of the elephant.
The Forest Forces in almost every State of India face acute shortages and have to stand in for longer periods of duty due to such shortages. This results in a not so effective monitoring of the zones for which they are responsible. Various States need to step up with their Recruitments and Monitoring measures to see the fullest implementation of the Wildlife Protection Act. There is not only a lack of officers patrolling such areas but also a severe shortage of equipment’s with the Forest Officers in almost every State which renders them ineffective. The Forest Forces are usually mired with acute shortage of staff which makes their resilience ineffective against managing such large swamps of forests. The CAG in its report of 2017 and 2019 had stated that states like Bihar (2017) , Karnataka (2017) and Maharashtra (2019) are having acute shortage of staff and equipment with the frontline forest workers across different sanctuaries in these states. The shortage ranges from 4-11% to 80% .
In the Petition filed through AOR Vivek Narayan Sharma, the Petitioner Adv Shubham Awasthi very categorically has preferred the stance which Supreme Court too has reiterated in its various previous landmark judgments that every species has a right to life and security. Animal’s well-being and welfare have been statutorily recognised under Ss. 3 and 11 of the Act and the rights framed under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Right to Live in a Healthy and Clean Atmosphere; Right to get protection from human beings against inflicting unnecessary pain or suffering; Right to get food and shelter; Right to dignity and fair treatment; right to not be beaten, kicked, over-ridder, overloading ; right against the human beings not to be tortured and against infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering ; all are rights recognized under Section 3 and 11 of PCA Act. Further S. 11(1) does not commensurate with the gravity of the offence, hence being violated with impunity defeating the very object and purpose of the Act, hence the necessity of taking disciplinary action against those officers who fail to discharge their duties to safeguard the statutory rights of animals under the PCA Act. Very interestingly, the Advocate/Petitioner has further referred that issues like Casteism, Racism, Sexism have relatively got over through Constitutional and Statutory amendments, like Arts. 14 to 17, 19, 29 and so on but Speciesism (coined by Richard Ryder) which is described as “the assumption of human superiority over other creatures, leading to the exploitation of animals” is still prevalent in bits and pieces.
Through this petition Filed through AOR Vivek Narayan Sharma the Petitioner Adv Shubham Awasthi has sought the Court to issue Mandamus writ declaring the practice of using barbaric means such as explosives , snares etc as illegal and unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14 and 21; direct Central and State government parties to make necessary amendments in the PCA Act, 1960 and making the punishments more stringent; direct the Central/State Governments to fill the vacancies in Forest Forces ; issue guidelines for the creation of a Standard Operating Procedure among States across the Union to deal with such Incidents and deaths of Animals due to Accidents and usage of Scientific means when such conflict arises and to achieve the goals of mitigating Animal Human Conflicts ; issue guidelines for the careful and sensitive handling of such news bymedia and concerned authorities so as not to create any friction in the society and real time data of animal deaths be maintained by appropriate authority along with periodic updates through press releases by appropriate government to stop any dissemination of fake news .
It is quite pertinent to mention here that the Public Interest Litigation seeks to address all the major problems with Wildlife Protection in India and has tried offering solutions and measures to be adopted amongst other things.
Read Petition Here:
