WHAT’S IN NEWS:
The standing committee on Science,Technology Environment and Climate Change headed by Jairam Ramesh has suggested that the environment ministry must constitute an advisory body of experts to tackle growing instances of human-animal conflict.
1. Human-Animal conflict: Human-wildlife conflict is when encounters between humans and wildlife lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life. Defensive and retaliatory killing may eventually drive these species to extinction.
2. Invasive species: Invasive species, also called introduced species, alien species, or exotic species, any non-native species that significantly modifies or disrupts the ecosystems it colonizes. Such species may arrive in new areas through natural migration, but they are often introduced by the activities of other species.
WILDLIFE(PROTECTION) ACT 1972:
- It is an act of Parliament enacted for protection of plant and animal species.
- It provides regulation for control of trade in wild animals, plants and products made from them.
- The act established schedules of protected plant and animal species that are afforded various degrees of protection and monitoring by the government.
- It currently has 6 schedules:
Schedules Provisions
I,II Absolute protections with highest punishment
III,IV Protected with lower punishment
V Animals legally Vermin and can be hunted freely, e.g. Common fruit bats, mice, cats, etc.
VI Endemic plants prohibited for cultivation and planting
The act has been amended several times already but the latest amendments are aimed at providing legislative backing to commitment made by India to the convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
THE WILDLIFE (PROTECTION) AMENDMENT BILL, 2021
The proposed bill includes 50 amendments. Some of the major features include:
- CITES: The bill seeks to implement provisions of CITES that focus on regulating trade of all listed specimen through permits and regulating possession of live animal specimens.
- Rationalizing Schedules: The bill streamlinesscheduling of species from 6 to just 3 schedule 1 for species with highest protection schedule 2 for species with lesser protection and schedule 3 that covers plants. The schedule for vermin species has been removed.
- Invasive alien species: The bill empowers central government to regulate or prohibit the import, trade, possession of invasive species.
- Control of sanctuaries: The bells specifies that action of chief wildlife Warden must be in accordance with the management forof the sanctuary that will be prepared by Central Government when the chief Warden is appointed by State Government.
- Conservative Reserves: The bill empowers central government to also declare conservation reserves which was earlier only available to state government.
- Surrender of captive animals: The bill provides for any person to voluntarily surrender any captive animals or animal products to chief wildlife warden.The surrender item becomes the property of state government.
FINDINGS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE REPORT:
- The bill proposes a standing committee of State Board of wildlife (SBWC) to make functioning of the body ‘more purposive’. But the expert points out that such committee would be packed with official members, exercise all powers of SBWC, will take independent decisions and end up becoming a ‘ rubber stamp’ for faster clearances of projects.
- The committee while agrees to the rationalisation of schedules but finds that many species have failed to appear in all these 3 schedules.
- It also points out that the species have been wrongfully arranged among the 3 schedules along with their scientific name in Latin which makes it difficult to manage for the concerned authorities.
- The report vividly talks about absence of ‘Human-Animal Conflict’ in proposed amendment saying it is a serious issue just as hunting and needs legal backing.
- The report recommends an advisory committee to be headed by chief wildlife warden with few members and in depth technical knowledge for evolving effective site specific plans including changing cropping patterns and taking critical decisions on short notice.
CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975.
Conservation Impacts:
After four decades, CITES remains one of the cornerstones of international conservation. There are 183 member Parties and trade is regulated in more than 35,000 species. Representatives of CITES nations meet every two to three years at a Conference of the Parties to review progress and adjust the lists of protected species, which is grouped into three categories with different levels of protection:
Appendix I: Includes the world’s most endangered plants and animals, such as tigers and gorillas. International commercial trade in these species, or even parts of them, is completely banned, except in rare cases such as scientific research.
Appendix II: Contains species like hippopotamus and many corals that are not yet threatened with extinction, but which could become threatened if unlimited trade were allowed. Also included are “look-alike” species that closely resemble those already on the list for conservation reasons. Plants and animals in this category can be traded internationally, but there are strict rules.
Appendix III: Species whose trade is only regulated within a specific country can be placed on Appendix III if that country requires cooperation from other nations to help prevent exploitation.
