Team Herald
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 reddo), 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.
