India, April 27 -- The Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra Government to compensate a farmer for pomegranate trees damaged by parrots, ruling the birds are "wild animals" under the Wild Life (Protection) Act and the state must reimburse citizens for losses caused by its property.

The Nagpur bench of Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nivedita Mehta noted that if farmers are not compensated for losses caused by protected species, they might resort to measures that harm wildlife, thus defeating the very purpose of the Act, which explicitly covers parrots.

A copy of the order passed on April 24 was made available on Sunday.

The court passed the order on a petition filed by Mahadeo Dekate (70), a farmer from Hingi village in Wardha...