The Supreme Court questioned the West Bengal government Monday over the use of fire torches to drive away elephants and directed the State to place before it the names and designations of the Forest officials who would be held responsible for any accident due to this.
The apex court observed that the use of fire or fire torches “cannot be the only answer” for driving away elephants in West Bengal and directed that the tender floated by the State government for procuring burnt mobil oil for distribution among villagers not be processed in the meanwhile.
Man-animal conflict
When the counsel appearing for the State said using fire torches was the only way to avoid man-animal conflicts, a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said, “You will kill all the animals and then there will be no man-animal conflict.”
“Wildlife is just being decimated. See the newspaper reports, so many elephants have died. Fire cannot be the only answer. You cannot go on burning everything. What is there to prevent somebody from throwing fire torches at the animals,” the Bench asked.
It directed the State to file an affidavit within two weeks, giving the names and designations of the officials from each forest division who would be held accountable and responsible in case of an accident due to the use of fire or fire torches.
High-beam lights
The counsel appearing for the petitioner, who had raised the issue of the use of spikes and fireballs in some States to drive away elephants, told the apex court that instead of fire torches, the West Bengal government should provide high-beam lights to villagers.
Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor-General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said they had in-principle agreed to the suggestion of setting up a task force, which would formulate and implement measures to effectively deal with conflicts with elephants across the country. When the issue of use of fire in West Bengal was raked up, Mr. Nadkarni said, “Fireballs are not to be used.”
Next hearing
The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on December 4.
On October 22, the court had observed that human-animal conflicts, especially involving elephants, were a “problem” and the Centre should consider setting up a task force to ensure adherence to the guidelines in this regard.