Proposed changes to wildlife law may hit research: Experts

Biologists and ecologists have raised concerns about the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act, 2022 making it difficult to carry out ecological and genetic research on a large number of species by restricting or making it difficult to collect specimens.

- Jayashree Nandi

This has happened because the so-called Schedule I of the revised act has been expanded to include a large number of species. Capturing specimens -- birds, for instance, are mist-netted, and then released -- is important to study a variety of issues, including studying how thermal stress is impacting endangered species; how their migration patterns are shifting; or even zoonoses or the transmission of pathogens from animals to humans.

The amendment bill sought to rationalise the schedules, and has created only two main levels of protection for animals -- Schedule I specifying the animal species with the highest level of protection, and Schedule II specifying the animal species with a relatively lower degree of protection.

Schedule III in the amendment act is for plant species and Schedule IV is for species protected under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In contrast, the original law had six schedules—Schedule I for animals with highest priority particularly endangered species; Schedule II species with a relatively lesser degree of protection; Schedule III and IV for non-endangered species; Schedule V for vermin; and schedule VI for plant species.

This rationalisation has meant the inclusion of a very large number of species in Schedule I which was meant essentially for critically endangered and endangered species. This also goes against the scientific logic of studying populations in the wild before deciding to place a species in Schedule I. One of the issues with the new system of schedules is that scientists may require two levels of permissions from the state and the Centre to collect specimens, ecologists said.

Another issue is about the new system not prioritising species as per their ecological importance, including whether they are endangered or not, whether their habitat is degraded or not, they argued.