Kochi, Sept. 19 -- The CPI(M)-led government in Kerala on Thursday introduced the contentious Wild Life Protection (Kerala Amendment) Bill 2025, a legislation seeking to amend the Wildlife Protection Act (1972), in the state assembly with the environmentalists and animal rights groups calling it 'unscientific' and 'legally unsustainable.' The amendment bill was moved by Kerala forest minister AK Saseendran who argued that the legislation would, to a great extent, mitigate the rising man-animal conflict and help protect both wildlife and the local population. One of the key provisions of the draft bill, accessed by HT, is to amend Section 62 of the central Act which gives the State government the powers to declare a wild animal under Schedule II a 'vermin' for a limited period on the basis of a government-appointed expert panel. Another contentious provision amends Section 11 of the 1972 Act, giving the CWW, upon a report from the District Collector or a CCFs, more powers to order a wild animal to be killed, tranquilised, captured or translocated if it attacks a person or is found in a place where people gather. htc...