new delhi five states have responded so far to the environment ministrys advisory of 2014 which had sought proposals from all state governments regarding wild animals that could be declared vermin under the wildlife protection act this would mean their killing will not be regulated anymore while the centre has already notified certain animals as vermin the states proposals accessed by toi through an rti enquiry by activist gauri maulekhi reveal that some havent considered any scientific mananimal conflict management before deciding which animals should be culled however experts have pointed out the reasons for seeking to cull these animals have not been argued properly uttarakhand for instance submitted that wild boars are affecting the livelihood of farmers in the hills and leading to their migration but the proposal has no reference of their habitat management we havent conducted any census of wild boars but the amount of crop damage is proof their numbers are going up the proposal said bihar where the wild boar and nilgai have been notified as vermin recently claimed in their proposal that about 200 nilgais have been killed but the operation has hit a roadblock since its name has religious connotations bihar forest department says there is always a volley of questions in the state assembly in each and every session about conflict cases forest officials find it very difficult to suggest a permanent remedy to people the proposal said both gujarat and himachal pradesh have referred to studies conducted by their governments himachal has pointed out its 2015 survey of monkeys using fixed strip transect method gujarat in its proposal has claimed that nilgai numbers have increased from 41644 to 186770 in 2015 and with shrinking population of wild predators their numbers are continuing to peak fixing solar live wire and barbed wire fencing didnt help either however the environment ministrys own advisory had observed that culling will not solve the nilgai problem according to a study conducted by the wildlife institute of india scientists also fear the shortcut method of culling will not address the real issue of mananimal conflict in the long run these animals are part of the trophic structuretheir numbers have increased because of an acute lack of carnivores the issue can be resolved only by scientific management of wild habitat this will only lead to endangering the wild boar species said c r babu ecologist and du professor emeritus permissions for culling have been given to three states with no regard to the fact that none of the proposals show if a scientific survey of population or an assessment of carrying capacity of the habitat has been done none of the proposals show if any measures for mitigation or adaptation have been carried out they also do not reveal the impact assessment for rampant encroachment fragmentation of forests and disappearance of corridors on these species pointed maulekhi deepak apte director of bombay natural history society said indians are a tolerant community and they have had close