Rajya Sabha member Jose K. Mani calls for setting up a tribunal for wildlife accidents
The Hindu
The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 has failed in preventing wildlife raids on human settlements, he says
Holding that the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 has failed in preventing wildlife raids on human settlements, Rajya Sabha member Jose K. Mani has called for an amendment to the law and establishment of a wildlife accident claims tribunal to address losses due to wildlife attacks.
Raising the recent incident of a wild elephant trampling a five-year-old girl to death near Athirappally in the upper house of Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Mani said the law concerned should be amended to give protection to people who attack animals in self-defence, besides enabling State governments to declare wild animals as vermin as and when the situation arises.
Aasheesh Pittie says birdwatching is not very unlike hunting, except that nothing is killed. “You track… you want to follow the bird… see it,” he says about this activity that he has pursued for nearly fifty years. Pittie, the editor of the ornithological journal Indian Birds, author of many classic reference books about birds and most recently, a collection of bird essays titled The Living Air: Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching, was speaking at an event organised by the Archives of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).