PANJIM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sidelined its
minister Ramesh Tawadkar over his recent controversial statement about the
possibility of declaring the National bird peacock and State animal bison as
‘vermin’ (nuisance animals).
The party stood by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s
version that these animals would not be considered vermin. “The CM’s stand is
our (party) stand,” BJP vice-president Pramod Sawant said on Saturday.
At a gathering in Margao, the Agriculture minister had
stunned citizens when he claimed that he was assessing to see if peacock and
bison could be declared as vermin.
Environmentalists had reacted sharply to the move and warned
that it will boomerang on the people. They also blamed the government for
destroying the habitat of the animals and warned of a backlash if the ecosystem
is disturbed
“The Forest Department has been asked to assess the nuisance
animals in Goa’s wildlife. Wild boar (raan dukor), monkey (khetim), gaur (gawo
redo), peacock (morr) and some more animals are being assessed under this
category of wild animals… There is a national bird and a State animal in the
list of the assessed animals. While doing assessment the points like complaints
which have been filed by agriculturists and people will be taken into
consideration and the opinion of the forest officials will be sought,” Tawadkar
had said.
Parsekar on Friday ruled out any such proposal even as he
conceded that the government had received complaints against certain animals
destroying crops.
