Giving major relief to the people in the human-animal conflict-prone regions in the State, the Kerala Cabinet on Saturday (September 13, 2025) approved the draft Bill empowering the Chief Wildlife Warden to order the immediate killing of any wild animal that attacks and injures a person after entering a residential area. This is the first time a State has introduced such an amendment in India.

The draft Kerala Forest Amendment Bill, 2025, amending the Kerala Forest Act, 1961, also has provisions for the sale of sandalwood trees on private land through the Forest Department outlets, and the price of the timber will be made available to the farmer.

According to Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran, the provisions of the Bill will enable immediate action to be taken in the event of a wild animal attack in human habitations by eliminating the impractical and time-consuming procedures in the existing Central Act and the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Union Government. The Minister, however, clarified that there is no hindrance under the Bill to protect the species that need to be protected.

If anyone is seriously injured in a wild animal attack, the District Collector or Chief Forest Conservator concerned reports the information to the Chief Wildlife Warden, who can take action, including killing the wild animal, without wasting time on other procedures.

The Bill also has provisions for birth control and translocation to other places if the number of wild animals in Schedule II increases in a particular region. There is no need to comply with the provision to obtain permission from the Union Government to do this as per the Bill.

The Union Government now has the power to declare any wild animal in Schedule II as vermin if it is found that its number has increased exponentially. Instead, the Bill has also included a provision to give this power to the State Government.

Once such a wild animal is declared vermin, anyone can kill such a wild animal. There is no obstacle to eating the meat of the killed vermin. Despite repeated requests to the Union Government through petitions and resolutions by the State Government and the State Legislative Assembly to declare the wild boar as vermin, the Centre has not given its permission.

Therefore, the State Government has appointed the chairpersons of the local self-government bodies as honorary wildlife wardens and is taking steps to kill and dispose of them as per the conditions of the Union Government. The Bill also provides for the transfer of monkeys (Bonnet macaque), from Schedule I to Schedule II.