Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, states on cruel practices to ward off wild animals

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre, Kerala and 12 other states on a PIL against use of explosives and other barbaric and cruel ways to ward off wild elephants and other animals.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices R Subhash Reddy and A S Bopanna sought a response from the Union government and States including Karnataka on the plea by Shubham Awasthi.

The petitioner led by advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma sought a declaration that the practices of filling fruits and food items and shaved sticks to ward off animals as illegal and unconstitutional, in order to provide a life of dignity to animals.

He also sought a direction for filling up of vacancies of Forest department in their respective States for better management of Animal-Human conflict.

He pointed out that the Constitution recognised the lives and welfare of animals by making it a fundamental duty of the citizens of India to respect and treat all living creatures with compassion.

Referring to May 27 incident where a pregnant elephant succumbed to injuries caused by the eating of a oineapple filled with crackers, he said such instances were antithetical to India’s obligations towards the fulfilment of fundamental rights of the animals.

Among others, he sought necessary amendments in the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act, 1960 to enhance punishments for causing ill-treatment to animals and make it more stringent as per modern times.