Saseendran to meet Union Minister to press State’s demands
The Hindu
He will seek declaration of wild pig as vermin
Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran will meet Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav in New Delhi on November 21 to apprise him of various issues in Kerala including the longpending demand to declare wild pigs as vermin.
He will also seek the Centre’s financial support to implement the action plan prepared by the Forest Department to tackle the mounting human-animal conflict in the State. The action plan has been formulated on the basis of feedback collected from people’s representatives and the general public.
An official press note quoting Mr.Saseendran said the State Government had taken steps to tackle the wild pig menace by allowing persons with licensed firearms to kill the animals. He, however, said repeated appeals to the Centre to declare wild pigs as vermin had not yielded any result.
A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.