NEW DELHI (TIP): Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on June 9 hit out at the Environment Ministry for allowing state governments to kill animals.

Defending his ministry, Prakash Javadekar said, “Such permissions are given on the request of the state governments to protect crops.”

Inspector General (Wildlife) S K Khanduri has issued a statement that no permission was given “to kill either deer, peacock or elephants”.

The outburst, which is seen as an embarrassment to the Narendra Modi government, comes after 200 blue bulls (nilgai) were culled in Bihar in the last six days.

However, Maneka, who is Women and Child Development Minister, charged that the Centre permitted the killing of nilgai in Bihar, elephants in West Bengal, monkeys in Himachal Pradesh, peacocks in Goa and wild boars in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, despite the respective wildlife departments saying they do not wish to kill animals.

Maneka, who surprisingly did not criticise the states, described the mass shooting of the blue bulls as the “biggest-ever massacre” born out of “lust” for killing in the Environment Ministry. To defuse the controversy generated by Maneka, an animal rights activists, Khanduri pointed out that there are many complaints from MPs, people’s representatives, state governments and farmers about their crops being heavily damaged in certain parts of the country.