Pitfalls of diluting wildlife trade rules

The window period for registration of exotic animal species in the possession of individuals, organisations, and zoos will be closed on August 28. This implies that penal provisions under the Living Animal Species (Reporting and Registration) Rules, 2024, can be invoked against anyone who is in possession of an exotic animal and has not registered it on the PARIVESH portal of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change after the deadline is over. These legal measures aim to curb the illegal trade of exotic animals by regulating the possession of such species. Without adequate monitoring and surveillance by wildlife authorities, the notified rules would be too little to curb the illegal trading of exotic animals. Smuggling of exotic species from Southeast Asian countries to India through the porous borders of Mizoram and other states in the Northeast region continues even after these measures point towards the gaps that need to be removed. The regulatory regime brought about by the notified rules must be seen in conjunction with the with the new wildlife licensing regime to devise a foolproof monitoring mechanism. The Wildlife (Protection) Licensing (Additional Matters for Consideration) Rules, 2024, introduced by the central government earlier this year, brought drastic amendments to the wildlife trade rule notified in 1983. The previous rules that were in vogue for more than four decades prohibited granting licenses for the trade of wild animals in both Schedule I and Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The new rules lifted wildlife trade restrictions with respect to certain Schedule II species. Additional considerations that the Chief Wildlife Warden may consider while granting licenses are: the capacity of the applicant to handle the business concerned with reference to facilities, equipment, and suitability of the premises for such business; the source and manner in which the supplies for the business concerned would be obtained; the number of licenses for the relevant business already in existence in the area concerned; and the implications that the grant of such a license would have on the hunting or trade of wild animals. The rules clarified that no such license shall be granted if it relates to any wild animal specified in Schedule I to the Act, except with the previous consultation of the Central Government. Operationalisation of the rules will facilitate a wildlife trade ecosystem, and the challenge will be to curb illegal trade of Schedule I species that is likely to take place under the garb of licensed trade of Schedule II species. As the requirement of prior approval from the central government for granting licenses has been removed, the onus has been shifted to the state forest department to prevent abuse of the license. Even though Schedule II species require a lesser degree of protection compared to the highest level of protection for Schedule I species, the assessment of the threat to their survival is a dynamic exercise that can be ascertained only through periodic surveys and studies. Ignoring new conservation threats arising from poaching, illegal trade, clearing of forest for infrastructure development, and granting licensing rights for trade will have irreversible consequences. Ironically, no explanation has been given while lifting the restriction on granting licenses to trade, which is baffling to all stakeholders in wildlife conservation. The forest protection system in Assam and other states in the northeastern region is already overstretched with notifications of new national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and human-animal conflicts when the strength of forest protection forces continues to be inadequate given the vast stretches of protected areas and the huge number of protected wildlife species. Unabated timber felling, encroachment in protected areas, and encroachment in buffer zones sound the alarm bell. Poaching and hunting have sounded the caution that licensed trade of wildlife species may also give rise to illegal trade of both Schedule II and Schedule II species without adequate monitoring by forest authorities. The craze for keeping wildlife species as pets and trading their offspring born in captive breeding has fuelled the demand for exotic and other wildlife species. If the licensed trade is not regulated properly, the illegal trade that still continues despite crackdowns against trafficking gangs and rescues of traffic animals expanding to new areas cannot be ruled out. Survival of every single species of wildlife is critical to maintaining the much-needed ecological balance for our planet Earth to remain liveable. Global warming and other climate change impacts have already posed a high degree of threat to the existence of many wildlife species. Significant reductions in population or the disappearance of certain species disrupt nature’s food chain and pose an existential threat to an ecosystem. Wild animals must be in their own ecosystem in order to play their crucial role in maintaining ecological diversity, which is also critical to human survival. Houses, courtyards, and cages of pet lovers are certainly not their habitats, and possession of exotic and wild animals and trade should be discouraged through awareness of the importance of wildlife conservation.