Context: The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Parliament to amend the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 in December 2021.

• The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 gives the Centre direct power to declare any species ‘vermin’.
• The basic motive of the amendment is to align the act according to changes in circumstances and trying to emulate a proper solution as per culling of vermin are concerned.

About Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021

• The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 brings in a major change by reducing the number of schedules from six to four.
• It proposes to remove Schedule V completely.
• It gives the Centre direct power to declare any species to be ‘vermin’ and make way for them to be freely hunted.

The Wild Life (Protection) Act

• The WLPA, 1972 currently has six schedules that assign varying degrees of protection to animals and plants.
• Under Schedule I and II of the Act, animals, and birds such as tigers and elephants are offered the highest protection.
• Schedule V lists species classified as ‘vermin’, such as common crows, fruit bats, rats, and mice.
• They may be hunted freely.
• Though the act does not define the word ‘vermin’, WLPA’s 62nd section grants the central government the power to declare any wild animal, other than those specified in Schedule I and Schedule II as ‘vermin’ for any area and a specified period.
• To prevent human-wildlife conflicts, several states in the past have petitioned to declare various animals to be ‘vermin’, including elephants, Indian porcupine, bonnet macaque, common langur, and barking deer.
• In 2016, the Centre declared rhesus monkeys in Himachal Pradesh, wild boar in Uttarakhand, and Nilgai in Bihar to be ‘vermin’.

Vermin

• They are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock.
• It is used to refer to a wide scope of organisms, including rodents, cockroaches, termites, bed bugs, ferrets, stoats, sables, rats, and occasionally foxes.
• It is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterprise.