CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Schedule V lists species classified as ‘vermin’, such as common crows, fruit bats, rats and mice, which may be hunted freely.

Detailed explanation-2: -The wild boar and nilgai have been proclaimed as “vermin” in Uttarakhand, the nilgai and boar in some districts of Bihar, and the rhesus macaque in parts of Himachal Pradesh.

Detailed explanation-3: -Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 empowers the states to send a list of wild animals to the Centre requesting it to declare them vermin for selective slaughter.

Detailed explanation-4: -Monkey population in Himachal Pradesh is down almost by 50 percent in the past one decade from 3.50 lakh in 2011 to 1.36 lakhs as per latest data compiled by the state’s wildlife wing in the forest department. “This is quite a significant and notable decline in the population of rhesus macaque monkeys in the state.