TAME THE TRADE

Strengthen wildlife protection laws to combat illegal hunting and trade of exotic and threatened species in India

- VIKRAM ADITYA, YOGESH PASUL, NIKHITHA JAGADEESH AND KRITHI K KARANTH

ON JUNE 11 this year, forest officials in Dibrugarh, Assam, arrested two men for illegally hunting egrets. The bird is listed under Schedule IV of the Wild Life Protection Act (WLPA), 1972, which protects wild animals from all forms of hunting, capture and trade. Just a fortnight earlier, Customs officials at Mumbai airport had arrested an Indian individual for smuggling more than 50 reptiles from Thailand into the country, including spider-tailed horned vipers and Asian leaf turtles, which are under Schedule IV of WLPA and Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) that regulates trade in wildlife with the aim of curbing their extinction risk.

Hunting has been a customary practice in India, with communities depending on wildlife for meat, medicine, ornaments and rituals. However, hunting and illegal trade have now become commercial, to meet demand for wildlife “trophies”, food and medicines and for exotic pets, within and outside India.

Take the case of pangolins, which have endured decades of hunting pressure with high demand for meat and scales in food and traditional medicine, particularly in East Asia. An ongoing assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that Indian pangolin populations could have declined by up to 90 per cent over three generations. This is despite pangolins being under Appendix I of CITES and Schedule I of WLPA, with blanket ban on hunting and trade within and outside India. A 2019 report by TRAFFIC India, which monitors wildlife trade, says that 5,772 pangolins were seized from India in 2009-17.