Populations
Wild Life
Every one likes to jump onto the wild life publicity wagon! Extinction is the scare, and protection the bottom line. If no one sees and reports a particular creature in the wild for 50 years, the specie is declared extinct; and the cheetah is the most well known of the 23 species believed to be extinct in India. That is the reason why cheetahs were reintroduced into India’s Kuno National Park in 2022. They were brought from Namibia with great fan-fare, but sadly hundreds of live cheetal were kept ready for them to hunt – that cheetal are wild life too seems to matter little. The cheetah’s favourite prey is spotted deer (cheetal), sambar deer, wild boar, peafowl, rabbits and nilgai. In other words all these species will be kept there for the cheetahs to hunt.
Interestingly, in September 2024 a male tiger that was believed to have killed 10 persons during the past year was tranquilised in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. Since the animal was found to be unresponsive to any sounds, it was suspected that prolonged exposure to loud noises such as fire-crackers burst by villagers to scare wild life and vehicle horns in the area could have been the cause of the tiger’s deafness.
In November 2024 a tigress was almost killed by villagers viciously throwing sticks and stones at her since she strayed out of Kamakhya reserve forest in Assam’s Nagaon. She was so severely injured and even lost one of her eyes although both were also badly hurt. To save herself she jumped into the river and was rescued by foresters 17 hours later.
Since the Amendments in the Forest (Conservation) Act resulted in 1.97 lakh square kms of land getting excluded from forest area, at the beginning of February 2025 the Supreme Court restrained both Central and State Governments from doing anything which would lead to further reduction in forest area in the country.
The Forest Survey of India had already declared that dense natural forests in regions like the Western Ghats and the Northeast had been diverted for non-forest purposes. In short there was a major drop of 46,707 sq km in the country’s dense natural forests, although over 2,400 sq km of forests had been added outside natural forest areas.
Deforestation results in climate change and biodiversity loss. Wild life suffers because with no trees birds, reptiles and insects lose their habitat. Small mammals are affected and in turn larger ones. The cascading effect eventually leads to starvation and species extinction.
Many wild life populations have indeed decreased and continue to fall in numbers due to hunting, capture, encroachment of habitat, pollution, flooding as a result of connecting rivers or building dams, mining and blasting, construction of highways and railway lines, tourism in wildlife habitats, and so on and on. The root cause for every reason is positively humans. For example, a report released by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change covering 2014 to 2022 stated about the Asian elephant that has been listed as endangered by the IUCN since 1986, that in the last 5 years 494 were killed due to accidents, electrocution, poaching and poisoning; and in 2022 it was reported that a tiger was seen searching for a path as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Nagpur-Umred highway had cut through its corridor in the Umred-Karhandia-Paoni Wildlife Sanctuary. January 2023 saw the death of 13 black bucks and 2 grievously injured on Pune-Solapur highway because a wildlife crossing or overpass had not been built – 15 of them fell from a height of 35-feet onto the road. Then in 2024, it was reported that since most migratory routes of black bucks had been either diverted or disrupted due to highway construction, particularly along their grazing grassland areas of Solapur, road-kills had been increasing on highways. Such hit-and-run accidents are fairly common and black-bucks are not the only animal victims who get run over while crossing highways, e.g. a vehicle (which could not be traced so the driver escaped prosecution) ran over a leopard at Kandali village near Junnar on the Pune Nashik highway in September 2023. Similarly, in January 2025 a 3-year old leopard was the victim of a hit-and-run speeding vehicle on the Delhi-Meerut express-way.
Upon knowing that the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) had mandated the slogan “Be Kind to Animals” to be displayed on all state transport buses April 2025 onwards, BWC wrote to the Union Minister giving suggestions to effectively make drivers cautious and save animals from injury and death, mentioning that BWC had also written to the Ministry in 2018 and 2019 and approached the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation regarding monkeys getting killed when crossing NH-4 and said it could be easily avoided by fixing road signs advising vehicles to slow down and if people did not feed them – in their enthusiasm to eat they did not notice speeding vehicles as a result of which they got hit.
Below are the suggestions that BWC sent to the MoRTH in July 2025 with a request to seriously consider implementing them to ensure road safety for wild and domestic animals all over India:
• There should be a 24/7 speed limit of 30 kmph on all vehicles passing through or on roads adjoining forest areas. Rumble strips (like speed bumps at toll-nakas) can be fixed at every 100 metres to ensure speed is not increased.
• Highways running through all forest areas should be closed to traffic for at least an hour around sunset and another hour around sunrise. This is when animals move the most and are very likely to suddenly cross the road.
• Sensors can be fixed so that caution lights get automatically turned on whenever an animal is crossing the highway.
• Roads can be marked with fluorescent paint where wild animals are known to cross.
• Signboards displaying silhouettes of animals that are known to cross can be fixed on the roadside well in advance, warning drivers and giving them sufficient time to completely slow down.
• Fencing along stretches of the road where animals are likely to cross can be constructed.
• Flyovers, underground, and/or overhead passes for vehicles and/or wildlife should be constructed where possible in forest areas. In case of monkeys, overhead arches with natural vegetation can be built so that the chance of them crossing the road is lessened.
• An awareness campaign covering the following facts can be launched immediately:
(a) Animals get dazzled by headlights and can get easily run over.
(b) It is better to brake and stop than swerve and go ahead. But if that is not possible, never to drive on the side of the road in front of an animal that is crossing the road, but to pass behind it.
(c) Be extra cautious especially before and after sunrise and sunset, and slow down considerably in thickly forested areas and more so on blind bends.
(d) Never stop and feed any wild animal or bird.
• Last, but not least, in case of any animal being injured or killed, the driver of the vehicle should be held fully responsible and be appropriately dealt with as per law. Camera or other systems should be in place, to locate those who hit and run.
In December 2025 BWC was pleased to know that 12 km of the Bhopal-Jabalpur NH-45 was made “wildlife safe” by NHAI. Continuous iron fencing on both sides of the highway guide animals to the openings of 25 wildlife under-passes. On this stretch that cuts through tiger habitat near the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, 5mm raised red speed bumps for over 2 kms create vibrations under vehicle tyres, alerting and forcing drivers slow down well before they reach the area where animals like tigers and deer are likely to cross the road. They are like the rumble strips suggested by BWC to the MoRTH a few months earlier.
Unsurprisingly data from the Indian Railways revealed that between April 2019 and January 2023 more than 1 lakh cattle had been run over by trains – note: this does not cover wild life or any other animals. It is bad that whenever trains hit animals, only the delay or damage to the train or if travellers are hurt, is reported. Animals injured or killed are of no consequence whatsoever to the authorities or the media.
A total of 286 lions had died (58 unnatural deaths and 143 cubs) in Gujarat in 2023 (58 adults and 63 cubs) and 2024 (85 adults and 80 cubs).
In June 2024, BWC wrote to the Director General, Research Design & Standards Organisation informing him that we had for decades been regularly writing to the Ministry of Railways (Govt of India) regarding trains running over wildlife and other animals and giving suggestions to implement such as speed limits when passing through forest areas, but since accidents continued to occur we wondered if it would be possible for them to incorporate this aspect in the Kavach system developed by them so that brakes are automatically applied if animals are found on railway tracks.
Believe it or not, on the morning of 13 August 2024 a train ran over a crocodile severing it in two, near Rouza railway station in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
When a young Tigress was hit and killed on the railway tracks by a passenger train between Chanda Fort-Gondia railway line in the Sindewahi forest of Maharashtra, it was revealed that 13 animals including 2 Tigers, Indian Guars, Sambar Deer, Chital and Sloth Bears had been killed in train accidents on the Gondia Ballarshah line in 2024. BWC therefore wrote to the Central Railways and the Maharashtra State Minister of Forests requesting that appropriate action be taken against all the train drivers responsible. Also that it was essential to set a speed limit for trains passing through forest areas. In fact it would be advisable to stop all trains (at least goods trains to begin with) from running through forest areas between 6 pm and 6 am.
In December 2025 the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department wanted to seize a speeding train that had mowed down an adult male tiger on the Budni-Midghat railway line, calling it a “death track” which passes through the Ratapani Tiger Reserve. On this line in the past year, 9 big cats, including tiger cubs, had been killed. BWC wrote to the West Central Railway HQs requesting speed limits, etc be imposed and strict action be taken against the Driver of the train.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change has allocated Rs 10 crore for a 10-year research project to identify an appropriate drug, develop an immunocontraceptive for wild animals such as elephants, nilgai, wild pigs and rhesus monkeys and establish how to administer it – hopefully a single shot vaccine. The Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) will be the nodal agency.
While efforts for conservation, sustainable management and use of wild life continue world-wide, there can be no great success in increasing numbers or giving protection without basic reverence for life. For example, the only two female white rhinos remaining on earth were in 2019 anaesthetised for two hours and their eggs extracted. At an Italian biotech lab these eggs were fertilised with frozen sperm from males and developed into embryos but are kept stored in liquid nitrogen to be transferred into a surrogate mother some time in the future. The shameful fact remains that humans have massacred the world’s rhinos – in the mid-19th century there were more than one million rhinos in Africa.
This brings us to wild life populations that man feels are in excess and the resultant culling (read killing) – again at human hands. Human greed is truly limitless and endless. However, animal-human conflicts involving monkeys in many cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, there is a religious taboo on harming them. Relocation does not work – not for monkeys, not for leopards, or even dogs – because some how two take the place of the one that was removed!
In March 2025 it was reported that as many as 4,279 Nilgais had been killed in Bihar in the year 2024-25 (till February) because they damaged crops. The killing was done by professional shooters of the environment department. The state government gave compensation of Rs 50,000/- per hectare to farmers whose crops were damaged by nilgais/ghodparas and wild boars.
The Maharashtra Forest Department has not received a single request from farmers for official permission to hunt nilgai/rohis or wild boars. This was after stringent conditions like the animal should be within the field when shot and the carcass to be handed over to the Forest Department were issued in 2015. Farmers are electrifying their fences instead.
In June 2025 when a tigress from MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary on Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border killed a cow and went back to fetch her cubs, the owner of the cow poisoned the carcass, resulting in she and her 4 cubs dying.
According to the 2022 tiger census, around one-third of India’s 3,682 tigers live outside national parks and sanctuaries. And, about 400 persons were killed by them between 2020 and 2024 mostly in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Uttarakhand.
This made the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (Government of India) sanctioned Rs 88 crore for 2025-27 to mitigate man-tiger conflict in 80 most affected forest divisions across 10 states. The project will utilise technology to monitor tigers and their prey base and involve civil society to prevent man-animal conflict.
Monkeys
It is but obvious why Rhesus macaques are increasingly seen in cities – humans are responsible for having shrunk their habitat and they have no where to go – and therefore considered a nuisance.
However, in July 2019 the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change issued a notification (on request from the Himachal Pradesh) declaring monkeys as vermin and allowing local authorities to cull them in 91 tehsils till February 2020 and in Shimla till July 2020. In 2004 the monkey population in Shimla was 3,27,512 but had fallen to 2,07,614 in 2015. Despite this significant fall in numbers the state government felt that sterilisation was insufficient because monkeys were still a menace.
Uttarakhand also launched a similar, but pilot surgical sterilisaation project. And, in 2014 Karantaka sent officials to Himachal Pradesh to learn about the programme. Soon after of the President of India’s visit to the Vrindavan temple when he had been advised not to wear his spectacles because monkeys were liable to snatch them, the demand to allow their 2 lakh and fast growing population in Brajbhoomi (Mathura and Vrindavan) to be sterilised was put forward in January 2015. Himachal Pradesh’s initial proposals to declare monkeys vermin were rejected till 2015, but in August 2016 monkeys were declared vermin in 38 tehsils of the state following which the state government announced an incentive of Rs300/- for killing a monkey. Since religious sentiments prevented people from killing them, in April 2017 the state government decided to constitute a special eco-taskforce in scientific culling of monkeys in the 53 tehsils and Shimla (town) where they had by then been declared vermin. In addition, a Rescue Centre for Life Care with a capacity of housing 1,000 rogue and sterilised monkeys would be opened at Shimla. Then in 2019, to protect tourists from monkey attacks (food is the attraction) at the Taj Mahal, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel standing guard at the monument were given catapults/gulels to tackle the menace.
Kerala decided to grow crops that are not damaged by monkeys. Also Kerala, Odisha and Telangana are growing fruit bearing trees to attract them.
Elephants
The Times of India Statistics in January 2025:
2,800 humans had been killed in human-elephant conflict over 5 years. However, human deaths in attacks by elephants had seen a dip during the Covid year 2020-21; but the number went up by about 1.5 times since.
Number of deaths over 5 years:
574 during 2019-20
444 during 2020-21
557 during 2021-22
610 during 2022-23
628 during 2023-24
States with the highest deaths (2019 to 2023-24):
624 Odisha
474 Jharkhand
436 West Bengal
383 Assam
303 Chhattisgarh
256 Tamil Nadu
160 Karnataka
84 Kerala
93 Other States
West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have complained about wild elephants damaging sugarcane, coconuts, plantain, maize, and paddy crops.
After all, it is a widely known fact that sterilisation of elephants (and other wild life) adversely affects their behaviour. An article that appeared in the 2011 issue of the Scientific American stated that immunocontraception used in elephants in South Africa was the PZP (Porcine Zona Pellucida) vaccine delivered by darts. It involved chemically isolating the proteins from the egg cells of pigs. BWC is not the only one who thinks this technology is unethical.
Culling is worse. Meanwhile, poachers have been shooting, poisoning or using live-wire to kill them – for ivory it seems because it is quite common for the forest department to discover the trunk-less carcasses weeks after the animals were killed. For example, during October 2024, in the core area of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (500 kms from Bhopal) 1 male and 3 female wild elephants from a herd of 13 were found dead and 5 others needed treatment. It was suspected that they had been poisoned.
In 2018 poll-bound Chhattisgarh, the Forest Department managed to stop 17 elephants from visiting Mohanpur (a village located about 20 kms from Sarguja in Surajpur forest division) by confining the herd in about 1,600 acres in the adjoining forests of Mohanpur and Chandrapur. Big ponds were dug to create drinking water and around the ponds items like sugarcane and salt were dumped. This was attraction enough for the elephants to remain within the forest and not visit the adjoining villages, however solar fencing was also been laid down to stop them going out into the villages. But, the problem was not entirely solved because soon after another herd of 25 elephants migrating from Odisha (due to large scale mining and deforestation) was spotted in the Sarguja area.
In 2024 the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution asking the Centre to allow specified wild animals to be killed if they pose a threat to human life and to declare wild boars as vermin to permit their culling. This was followed by a decision taken at a cabinet meeting to declare human-animal conflict a state-specific disaster, a move that gets the disaster management authority involved in participating in mitigating human-animal conflict. Earlier in 2021 the Centre had declined their request saying “it would do more harm than good” although in 2020 Uttarakhand and in 2015 Bihar states had received the Centre’s permission to temporarily declare wild boar as vermin.
In Kashmir, Wildlife SOS recorded over 2,500 bear attacks between 2000 and 2020, with 95% injuries to humans.
Uttarakhand recorded 7 deaths – the highest since the state was formed in 2000 – and more than 70 injuries from bears in 2025. Temporary shoot at sight orders were again issued in Pauri district of Uttarakhand for a Himalayan black bear that was supposedly responsible for attacks on people and livestock, killing 5 people. However, since more than one bear was seen in the camera traps installed, it wasn’t possible to identify the one responsible for the attacks; and since the deadline to shoot it ended in a fortnight on November 14, 2025, the Forest Division decided to tranquilise and capture it instead.
The 2023 guidelines issued by the MoEFCC on mitigating wild boar conflict with humans, state the animals are “multi-speciality ecosystem engineers” and provide measures to reduce conflicts including an accurate assessment of their population hotspots, the management of garbage disposal, and the translocation of wild boars when they’re in abundance in one area. Moreover, since they are prey for carnivores, a reduction in their numbers would affect the predators and even lead to a loss of livestock in fringe areas of forests.
Wild animals have got used to all the gimmicks to halt them by erecting solar powered fencing barriers and impediments like digging 511.2 kilometres of elephant proof trenches to prevent their entry into farmlands and residential areas, bursting firecrackers, playing recorded roars of tigers, ropes smeared with chilli-oil on boundaries, pepper sprays, smoke canisters with pepper dung that emit repelling smoke when burnt but its effectiveness depended on the direction of the wind at the time. Matriarchs of elephant herds have being radio-collared in Assam in order to know the herd’s movements and take precautions so that herds are stopped in time from moving into fields.
However, there are people who realising that crop-raiding has led to people devising cruel and violent electric fencing, firecrackers and even gunshots, have come up with alternate compassionate solutions like the Gawahati based NGO Hati Bondhu http://hatibondhu.org/our-story.html that grows paddy in demarcated areas on community land specifically for the elephants to feed on so that they keep the herds contained in and away from crop intended for harvest.
BWC hopes Odisha and West Bengal implement this too and has therefore suggested to the State Ministers of Forest, Environment & Climate Change, to get in touch with Hati Bondhu. Between January and October 2024, Odisha lost 76 elephants and 56 of these in just 6 months. Human-Elephant conflicts in which both get killed are of major concern. Between 2019 and October 2024 as many as 483 elephants in Odisha and 116 in Bengal died. Of these 208 (Odisha) and 50 (WB) occurred due to electrocution, road or train accidents and even targeted killings. During the same period 755 (Odisha) and 507 (WB) human deaths occurred from encounters with elephants.
A study undertaken by the Wildlife Institute of India covering 2025 found that human fatalities in elephant attacks in Odisha were the highest in India with 17 persons killed per 100 elephants. Odisha had only 912 elephants, whereas Karnataka 6,013 and Kerala 2,785 had many more elephants but both these states reported only 1 human death per 100 elephants.
In February 2026 following a family of 3 being trampled to death by elephants at Barkipunu village, Mahuadatand, Bokaro in Jharkhand, BWC also wrote to the CM and Forest Minister suggesting they contact Hati Bondhu and ask them to help by suggesting measures to stop human-elephant encounters resulting in deaths of both elephants and humans.
In 2025 solar powered lighting in elephant corridors was introduced to improve safety and villages located in Jharkhand near the Palamu Tiger Reserve were protected with bio-fencing to prevent man-elephant conflict. A biological fence consists of different layers of plant species grown to keep wildlife from human populated areas. The 3-tier plants for elephants are sisal first which forms a thorny barrier, the second layer is of lemon grass which emits volatile oils that repel elephants, and the third layer is of thorny branches of pungent citrus/lemon.
BWC was very pleased to know that on 1 November 2025 about a dozen long-distance express trains were halted late at night for about 3 to 4 hours between Bisra and D Cabin section under the Chakradharpur division of the South Eastern Railways, close to the Jharkhand-Odisha border, in order to ensure safe passage to a herd of 22 wild elephants.
In contrast, on 20 December 2025 the Mizoram-New Delhi Rajdhani Express hit a herd of wild elephants in Assam’s Hojai district killing 7 and injuring others. The collision resulted in the engine and 5 coaches being derailed which indicates the high speed at which the train was travelling. BWC wrote to the Chief Minister of Assam asking him to take immediate necessary steps to ensure that such incidents are never repeated.
The fact remains that between 2009 and 2024, 186 elephants have been killed in railway accidents in India. And of these 47 were between 2021-24 with Assam leading followed by West Bengal and Odisha. Since most deadly accidents occur after dark, BWC wonders why the Railways do not stop plying trains through forest areas between 6 pm and 6 am.
By 2019 the elephant population in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Angola had risen, although as many as 111,000 elephants had been poached between 2006 and 2016 in the East African nations. The conservation success in these five countries had resulted in elephant-human conflicts which made them lobby with CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna) to permit culling and ivory trade via “concrete interventions”. In 2008 Zimbawe and South Africa were the last to be given permission for a one-time only sale of ivory stockpiles to China, but this had encouraged global demand for ivory and had led to poaching elephants in many other parts of the world. Surprisingly in November 2022, India abstained from voting on a proposal at the CITES meeting to allow commercial sale of ivory from African elephants. It was India’s deal with Namibia for the transfer to cheetahs to Kuno National Park. Luckily the proposal, also supported by Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa who had stockpiled elephant tusks, was defeated.
White Tigers
People who visit the existing White Tiger Safari in Mukundpur, Rewa district run by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, do not realise that they are indirectly promoting captive bred weaker tigers.
Furthermore, it is unfortunate that in December 2024 the MP government obtained approval from the Central Zoo Authority and have began setting up a White Tiger Breeding Centre in Govindgarh, 20 kms from Mukundpur.
The white tiger is considered rare because of a recessive gene or lack of pigmentation. It is not considered as healthy as a normal tiger therefore it should not be multiplied in captivity. Moreover, it is weaker in physiological vigour and its ecological value is nil.
Pigeons
Interestingly, in the 17th century, a vital ingredient in gun powder was saltpetre (potassium nitrate), which could be extracted from pigeon manure. The compound was so important that King George I of England declared that all droppings were the property of the Crown.
It is next to impossible to stop the feral rock pigeon population explosion today. It just might be possible if they are not fed at all, but that’s unlikely. They’re the common blue species that roost on buildings and forage for food. As things stand, many people feed them grain and other foods as a result of which pigeon faecal matter is found in abundance.
There is no doubt that if pigeon droppings are inhaled it is very harmful for human lungs. But, not everyone is allergic.
In July 2025 the Bombay High Court directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to lodge FIRs against persons “illegally” and in “defiant” manner feeding pigeons at Dadar (West) and other Kabootarkhanas despite a policy prohibiting the same and HC refusing interim relief for feeding in its earlier orders. This resulted in requests (political as well) to the Commissioner BMC to “find a balanced, humane solution” with alternative arrangements being made to feed pigeons in open spaces (regulated feeding zones) such as Bandra Kurla Complex, Race Course, Aarey Colony and Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The Maharashtra CM issued a statement saying “Saving the lives of pigeons, protecting the environment and securing citizens’ health – all three are important. Until an alternative system is in place, the BMC should continue a regulated and controlled supply of food to the pigeons.” He also said that any decisions concerning pigeon-feeding zones must be accompanied by alternative and compassionate solutions to prevent the starvation of birds.
Vermin vis-à-vis the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022
Declaration of certain wild animals to be vermin – The Central Government may, by notification, declare any wild animals other than those specified in Schedule II to be vermin for any area and for such period as may be specified therein and so long as such notification is in force, such wild animal shall be deemed not to be included in Schedule II for such area and for such period as specified in this notification.
In 2014 for the first time the Centre had asked State Governments to send proposals for wild animals to be culled under Section 62. Some States themselves had declared ‘Vermin’ under the then legal Section 11(b) and killed those animals, whereas the Centre had issued notifications under Section 62 in addition, like for Bihar’s nilgai.
Ironically, over the years big cats have been often blamed for fatal attacks on humans, including children, whereas the death was actually murder and many have escaped detection. For example, in December 2024 a woman was found dead due to a suspected leopard attack (as there were scratch marks on her body) in a sugarcane field at Kadethan village of Daund taluka in Maharashtra. However, following the forensic report that stated no animal saliva was traced in the woman’s body and she was therefore not killed by an animal, the Yavat police established it was a case of murder and arrested 2 suspects.
Meanwhile, in order to provide researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India with footage to help mitigate rising leopard-human conflict, between December 2024 and April 2025 they fitted a male leopard in Junnar with a camera collar programmed to record 30 second video clips every hour.
Nilgai and Others
Citing man-animal conflict, wildlife such as nilgai, wild boar, porcupine, sambhar, cheetal, hare, jackal, monkey, black deer, peacocks and parrots that damage crops have for years from time to time been declared or nearly be declared as vermin under Section 11 of the Wildlife Protection Act which permits killing of animals if they post any threat to the habitat or destroy crops, and allowed to be hunted in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Kerala and Karnataka.
The nilgai has damaged pulses, paddy, vegetables, opium, corn and wheat in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.
Another name for Nilgai is Roz. In Punjab, the newly constituted state’s Wildlife Board (accused of comprising of well-known hunters) in its first meeting held in July 2017, allowed short term permits for shooting roz and wild boar that damaged crops.
When permission was not granted for endangered black bucks to be killed and they continued destroying standing crops in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, farmers hired shooters. Therefore in Karera Sanctuary their population which was at the time 3,000 came down to 250. From 2000 onwards permission has been often granted in Madhya Pradesh for nilgai to be hunted. In 2012 when Madhya Pradesh wanted to allow wild boar and nilgai to be hunted, the state was accused of wanting to do so to benefit lodge operators to lure tourists who wished to go hunting. However, tigers died in traps laid down to electrocute wild boar.
In 2010 Himachal Pradesh notified nilgai as vermin and allowed them to be culled. In 2011 not only did Kerala give farmers permission to kill wild boars that were destroying their crops, but shooters were paid Rs 500 for every animal they killed.
Against this backdrop, in 2015 Rajasthan to avoid allowing the killing of nilgai to save crops, decided to introduce a population control measure cum sport by inviting marksmen to stalk, chase and shoot them with sterilising contraceptive darts. The “sport” would be in the form of a pilot project. The marksmen would need to sneak up on approximately 55,000 nilgai, aim for their rumps and shoot the darts. If injected right the vaccine would leave a splash of colour on their coats. Interestingly the vaccine could be porcine. So there we go killing one animal to save another.
In 2016 after farmers complained that wild boars were destroying their crops so the government of Uttarakhand declared them as vermin. Soon after Bihar declared nilgai as vermin for the same reason and in June 2016 200 were shot dead. Years earlier in March 2012 the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare issued a joint advisory against declaring nilgai as vermin and recommended ways to manage. In fact, the advisory was against declaring any wild animal as vermin.
A farmer from Jalore, Rajasthan who felt the extent of damage the nilgai leave behind on entering a field full of crops, is a very serious problem, and went on to say that “the government does not need to cull nilgai. They should be tranquillized and moved to the Ranthambore National Park or some other wildlife sanctuary. That will get them off our backs and provide a natural prey for tigers too.”
Wild Boar are said to damage all kinds of food crops in Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. In 2024 Kerala Assembly passed a resolution asking the Centre to declare wild boars as vermin and permit their culling and allow specified animals to be killed if they pose a threat to human life. Whereas, Peafowl are known to eat grains and fruit crops in Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat. In 2016, within a couple of months of Bihar and Uttarakhand declaring the Wild Boar as vermin, Goa declared peafowl and gaur as vermin in the state – ironically the national bird and the state animal which resulted in objections, from BWC included. It is understood that the order regarding the national bird was withdrawn, but not the gaur.
Porcupines are usually hunted at night when they suffer and die because it is difficult to reach their bodies due to their quills. Their meat is eaten in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra. Their quills are used in a wide range of items like pens, jewellery and accessories. Moreover, their meat and quills are coveted for black magic. In December 2020, porcupine quills (salinder in Marathi) were found to be used for black magic rituals on trees next to the Lord Mahasoba temple under the Holkar Bridge in Pune, attracting relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention & Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil & Aghori Practices & Black Magic Act, 2013.
Naphthalene/moth-balls are not meant to be used in open areas (where the vapours can be inhaled) to repel wildlife, nevertheless 2017 onwards many Wardha farmers of Maharashtra began using them as protection for crops, not only against rodents but also wild boars. A couple of moth-balls tied to 2-3 feet sticks and erected at a distance of 15 feet around the field keep them at bay. Earlier they tried phorate/thimet, an insecticide but stopped its use since it could kill their cattle. They say moth-balls are much more effective than bursting fire crackers, playing audio cassettes, or using tiger scat bought from the zoo.
Researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) undertook a study that revealed that farmers in Maharashtra collectively suffered an annual loss of up to Rs 40,000 crore because of man-animal conflicts involving herbivores – not leopards and other big cats. The Konkan region emerged as the most affected where monkeys caused damage, gaur in the Sahyadri region, nilgai in Vidarbha, elephants in Sindhudurg & Gadchiroli, whereas wild boars were widespread along with giant squirrels, porcupines, chinkaras and blackbucks. Economic losses occurred to farmers when fields were abandoned due to cost involving time, health and employing labour to guard fields at night. 54% of farmers had stopped cultivating at least one crop and 64% reduced their farming area. Last, but not least, the compensation received by the farmers was less than 1-2% of the actual damage they incurred.
A Durgapur based NGO WINGS (Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society) has had 40% success by using brightly coloured flags hung around the perimeter of pasture areas in West Bengal to distract carnivores such as wolves.
Crying Wolf?
The Editorial of the Times of India of 31 August 2024 stated “Wolves avoid humans. Attacks are triggered when wolves feel threatened, over food scarcity or loss of habitat, or when protecting their young. Flooding of habitat, loss of food, cubs driven over by tractors unknowingly are some of the triggers discussed among the terrified locals… We shouldn’t make villains out of threatened animals.”
However, the Times of India has been reporting on wolf attacks for over 150 years. The very first report appeared in February 1869 which stated “Government had authorised the engagement of professional shikaris for their extirpation” (killing) in Mirzapore (Mirzapur) area.
Few may recall a 9-year-old boy with protruding teeth, curved nails and claw-like hands and feet who could not speak but snarled, was found starved and shivering at Lucknow railway station way back in 1954. The news about this child who was named Ramu spread worldwide with leading publications covering the story with pictures – the 2 doctors who treated him believed he had been raised by wolves. He died in 1968, aged 27.
After two decades, in 1996 when huts had no doors, wolves killed 33 children and mauled 20 other children from Lakhimpur to Manjanpur in UP. This happened because villagers were stealing cubs from their lairs because a reward was given for every wolf killed.
28 years later Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh witnessed a spate of attacks, with at least 10 persons (mostly children) killed, and more than 25 others injured in a span of 45 days in July/August 2024 by wolves. In response the Forest Department launched Operation Bhediya to capture the wolves in cages and later issued shoot-at-sight orders. Efforts also included thermal drones, snap cameras, firecrackers, as well as elephant dung and urine to drive them away; and an innovative effort of using brightly coloured ‘teddy-dolls’ soaked in a child’s urine (so it emits a natural human scent) as bait strategically placed near the riverbanks, close to the wolves’ dens. They captured 5 of the 6 wolves that seemed to be posing a threat in the 35 villages in Bahraich. One of the captured wolves died in the cage, 1 was shifted to Gorakhpur and 2 to Lucknow Zoos. Whereas some experts felt that it was very likely one lone wolf was the killer, some conservationists said the attacks were by hybrid wolf-dogs (wolves mating with feral/stray dogs).
A year later, in September 2025 a wolf was again suspected to have killed 4 children and injured 16 persons in Bahraich district which led the UP Chief Minister not only to announce compensation for the families of the deceased but directed the Forest Department to capture or to shoot the wolf that was responsible. Thus 3 wolves were shot dead and 1 injured. Then in November 2025, it was said that 2 kids had been mauled to death by wolves in Bahraich district. Thereafter it was announced that during the last 3 months, 9 children and an adult had been killed; and 38 persons had been injured in wild animal attacks in this region. By end-December 2025 it was announced that 9 wolves had been killed in the riverine belt of the Saryu in UP’s Bahraich during the last 90 days.
Soon after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the Indian Wolf as a distinct species placing it in the “vulnerable” category on the Red List with an estimated 3,093 left in the wild across India and Pakistan.
Suspicion over wolf-dog hybrids was growing because drones, trackers, guns, guards and forest officials were unable to tackle the pack of wolves that had by January 2026 killed 12 in Bahraich, of which 10 were kids.
Reverence and Respect for Leopards Pays
In February 2026 the Maharashtra state Assembly was informed that 420 persons were killed in wild animal attacks during the last 5 years and 104 of these were caused by leopards and tigers. Chandrapur district in the Vidarbha region alone recorded 47 deaths in 2025 and Rs 8.27 crore had been disbursed as financial assistance to the kin of the deceased.
Following an article in Mid-Day about the pathetic condition of leopards kept in trap-cages at Ahilyanagar for months, BWC wrote to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in March 2026 pointing out the cruelty and requested him to issue immediate orders to relieve their suffering before more animals die. We added that it was shocking that no plans to rehabilitate them in forest areas had been made and that they should not be going to Zoos.
However, around the same time Maharashtra’s Junnar Forest Division shifted 20 leopards, with a possibility of another 30 being also “relocated for better care” from Manikdoh rescue centre to Vantara in Gujarat. Manikdoh was under pressure due to the rising number of leopards being captured and housed there during the last 3 months.
In Odisha poaching of leopards and their prey in forest areas has been responsible for their decline (down from 760 in 2018 to 568 in 2024) with 116 leopards having been killed for their skins between 2018 and 2024. Many more have obviously gone un-intercepted.
Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023
Canine Control
A dog is man’s best friend but what is meted out to the majority of (stray) dogs by man is, to say the least, disgraceful. No wonder then that when the Supreme Court ruled in August 2025 that Delhi’s street dogs should be picked up and kept in shelters, there were massive rallies and objections raised throughout India. Ironically, one of the 2 judges who had ruled thus was a Parsi although the earlier (albeit almost 200 years ago) 1832 Bombay Dog Riots when the British tried to cull stray dogs had been successfully led by the Parsi community.
Within a few days the matter was brought before a 3-judge bench of the SC. It was emphasized that there were not enough shelters to shift stray dogs to and that no one had died due to rabies in Delhi during the last 5 years.
The revised judgement was compassionate and not harsh with exception to “aggressive” dogs. The order was extended to the whole of India and Municipalities were to strictly adhere to the ABC (Animal Birth Control) rules and numerous small feeding locations were to be identified since it was impractical for many dogs to be herded in one place and fed together since by nature dogs were territorial animals. They were to be sterilised and returned to their own localities where feeding them should be carried out without obstruction because keeping them hungry was neither good for public safety (causing aggressiveness), nor in consonance with the spirit of compassion under ABC rules.
Street dogs are considered menace and fit to be got rid of, again, because of their high increasing numbers. No one acknowledges that the unwanted dogs have all originated from pet dogs.
When dogs bite humans in self defence, they panic and rush to the closest hospital for anti-rabies shots… these injections and treatments are recorded. Therefore, the dog bite cases’ figures (note: not rabies cases’ figures) released at the end of the year are over a hundred times higher and far from represent the actual number of dogs that turned rabid. Moreover “animal bite cases” include not only dogs, but others like cats, pigs, horses, monkeys, snakes, wolves, etc. Click here for number of human rabies cases (death) reported in India from 2022 to 2025.
Month & Year
Bitches
Female Pups
Male Pups
January 2025
1
2
2
June 2025
1
4
4
January 2026
3
8
10
June 2026
5
16
20
January 2027
11
32
42
June 2027
21
64
84
January 2028
43
128
170
Total female dog population 43+128=171
In the 1980s the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, pioneered a drug which castrates male animals. The once-in-a-life-time injection called Talsur (named after the NII’s Director, Prof GP Talwar and Scientist, Dr Anil K Suri) worked on fully grown/mature dogs in by sterilizing/castrating them without anaesthetising them but they would need to be held down firmly. The aftereffects involved inflammation; and the animal would be sterile after 4 to 6 weeks. For over a year the Delhi Municipal Corporation successfully used the injections on stray male dogs in 4 of the 10 sectors of the capital. There were no adverse effects due to the injections whenever they were correctly administered. BWC suspects that the go ahead for Talsur was sabotaged by those promoting the rabies programmes and veterinarians who felt threatened because if Talsur worked they would not be required to surgically neuter animals.
In July 2025, the Nashik Municipal Corporation (Maharashtra) approved a programme to sterilise and vaccinate stray cats, just like they had been undertaking a ABC programme for stray dogs – 80,000 in 9 years.
Grown for Slaughter
Milk and Meat of Human Unkindness
Despite the prevalence of cow worship, AI is the norm for breeding dairy cattle in India – ironically encouraged by the government and unfortunately practised by pinjrapoles and gaushalas.
Meanwhile, AI continues flourish with state targets for additional centres aiming to increasing the population of crossbreed cattle. Such special initiatives are implemented under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana with crores of rupees being sanctioned so that milk production goes up substantially.
In vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and Ovum-Pick-Up (OPU) technologies are processes by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body, i.e. in vitro or “within glass”.
• To produce more offspring in shorter periods
• To rapidly multiply desired genotypes
• To speed up selection intensity
• To transfer and introduce superior germplasm rapidly
• To shorten intervals between generations
• To produce twins and triplets
• To produce offspring of desired sex
• To control diseases better
• To facilitate export and import of superior germplasms
• To create copies of profitable animals
Page last updated on 09/03/26