Monkey meance: Himachal HC issues notice to Centre, state govt

Himachal High Court today issued notices to the Centre and state government on the issue ofdeclaring monkey as vermin for the next six months in the jurisdiction of Shimla Municipal Corporation.
The Court directed Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Union of India, Chief Secretary, government of Himachal Pradesh and Member Secretary of National Board of Wildlife to file a reply within six weeksand posted the matter for May 3.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan passed these orders on a petition filed byRajeshwar Singh Negi, challenging the notification issued by Centre declaring monkey as vermin for the next six months in the jurisdiction of the Shimla MC.

Negi pleaded in his petition that by declaring monkeys a vermin species, the government has made a provision for killing of monkeys and said that the main purpose of issuing the notification was that monkeys pose a threat to people and damage their crops.
The notification has been issued only for Shimla town, which has less agricultural area than other parts of the state, the petitioner said and asserted that it disregards a constitutional mandate about securing wild creatures and the environment besides saying that right to life assured by Article 21 of the Constitution is extended to animals as well.

The petitioner pleaded that killing monkeys for creating violence was not the solution and instead, substantial scientific method can be used to deal with them.