Traditionally, India is one of the few countries where hunting of wild animals is completely prohibited under the Wildlife Protection Act. This has been the only consolation to wildlife in a country where deforestation and poaching are great threats to biodiversity. 

However, recently, there has been a change in policy and subsequently certain animals such as Nilgai, Wild Boars and Rhesus Macaque have been declared as "Vermin" by the Central Government in certain areas, thus leading to large scale culling of these animals. The reason often being cited for declaring an animal as "Vermin" is large-scale devastation of crops.

Worse still, the State of Goa has a proposal to declare the Peacock, India's beautiful National Bird as "Vermin." It cannot get worse than this.

This irresponsible move from the Central Government needs to be condemned at the outset and this practice needs to stop. Whenever a State Government comes up with a proposal, the Central Government needs to undertake a detailed scientific study to ascertain the extent of the problem and whether alternative solutions exist. Such heartless culling is not the answer. Each animal has a specific role to play within its ecosystem and such large-scale culling can have drastic effects on the ecosystem all the way up the food chain to the apex predator.

God did not create humans to wipe out the Earth's biodiversity. Instead, humans were equipped with a sixth sense to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, and act responsibly. Its quite unfortunate that the bureaucracy in India, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, who once said "The success of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated" in unable to act in a responsible manner.