this presentation will help you in understanding what illegal wildlife trade is and laws relating to it.

1. Illegal Wildlife
Trade in India
AVICHAL MISHRA

2. Research
objective
Analysis of existing laws
regarding wildlife trade
How airways contribute to illegal
wildlife trade in India.
Finding ways to improving the
situation.
Presentation Title

3. Introduction
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Earth is not just a home for humans. But it
seems like that we humans have forgotten
this. We have constantly degraded the
quality of environment and ecosystem. The
way, we humans have used this planet has
caused a great threat to existence of many
species.
Whenever people sell or exchange wild
animal and plant resources, this is wildlife
trade. It can involve live animals and plants
or all kinds of wild animal and plant
products.

4. Laws in India
LEGISLATIONS RELATED TO WILDLIFE
TRADE

5. The Wildlife
(protection)
Act, 1972
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Hunting of any wild animals is prohibited by
the Wildlife (protection) Act,1972
Under the section 17A of the said act prohibits
collection or trade in specified plants or their
derivatives.
Trade in animals that are covered under
Schedule I and II are prohibited under the said
act.
Controls trade of animal, and animal products
by way of import and export policies. Central
government forms the law regarding control of
import and export.
Helped in establishing of National Tiger
Conservation Authority. Also, a Wildlife Crime
Control Bureau gets its statutory backing from
the said act.

6. G.R. Simon vs
Union of India,
1997 SCC
Online Del 324
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The petitioner had a business of leather material
made out snake skin. By the amendment of
1986, the petitioner was required to liquidate
their stocks relating to animal products within 2
months. Thereafter, export of the goods would
be made a body called as Bharat Leather
Corporation.
The honorable court held that the said law does
not violates the rights guaranteed under Article
19(1)(g) of the Indian constitution.
Also, honorable court laid emphasis on the
article 51A of the Indian Constitution.
The court also said that there is a fundamental
duty of every Indian to protect natural
environment and to show compassion for all life
forms.

7. Foreign Trade
(Development
and
Regulation) Act
1992
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Made to replace the legislation which controlled
import and export earlier. It was named as
Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947.
Gives power to the central government to make
Foreign Trade Policy.
These policy play an important with respect to
what can and what cannot be imported or
exported.

8. The Forest
Conservation
Act, 1980
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Was created to check the rapid
deforestation due to forestlands being
released by the governments for industrial
or agricultural use. The act makes de-
reservation by of any reserved forest for
use of non-forest purposes. The Supreme
Court of India currently imposes a ban on
conversion of reserved forest to unreserved
for non-forestry activities without the
approval of the federal government.

9. Indian Penal
Code, 1860
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Section 428 and 429 deal with wildlife crimes.
Section 428; Mischief by killing or maiming
animal of the value of ten rupees.-Whoever
commits mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming
or rendering useless any animals or animal of
the value of the ten rupees or upwards, shall be
punished with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to two
years, or with fine, or with both.
Section 429; Mischief by killing or maiming
cattle, etc., of any value or any animal of the
value of fifty rupees.--Whoever commits
mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or
rendering useless, any elephant, camel, horse,
mule, buffalo, bull, cow or ox, whatever may be
the value thereof, of any other animal of the
value of fifty rupees or upwards, shall be
punished with imprisonment or either
description for a term which may extend to five
years, or with fine, or with both.

10. Constitution Of
India
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1.Under Article 51A (g), it is a fundamental
duty of every citizen of India to protect and
improve natural environment including
forests, lake, rivers and wildlife and to have
compassion for living creatures.
2.Per List III, Both Parliament and the
legislature have the authority to make laws
on the following: “[p]revention of cruelty to
animals,” “protection of wild animals and
birds,” “[p]revention of the extension from
one State to another of infectious or
contagious diseases or pests affecting
men, animals or plants.”

11. THE
PREVENTION
OF CRUELTY
TO ANIMALS
ACT, 1960
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1.This Act enshrines the provisions
relating to the establishment of an
animal welfare board, its constitution,
powers, and functions.
2.This act discusses different forms of
cruelty, exceptions, and killing of a
suffering animal in case any cruelty
has been committed against it, so as
to relieve it from further suffering.
3.This act provides the guidelines
relating to experimentation on
animals for scientific purposes.

12. Foreign
Treaties and
India
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India is signatory to many international
groups and conventions that are related to
protection of wildlife from illegal trade. It
was in 1972 that UN conducted a
conference on Human environment. This
was held at Stockholm. 113 nations
historically signed to the “Wildlife Principle.”
The then Prime Minister of India, Indra
Gandhi was the delegation at the
Stockholm Conference. She took initiatives
to introduce this principle. A year later, an
international treaty was signed between
various nation to regulate trade in
endangered species of wildlife.

13. Man has a special responsibility to safeguard and wisely
manage the heritage of wildlife and its habitat, which are
now gravely imperilled by a combination of adverse
factors
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Stockholm Declaration

14. CITES
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Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Folra
In 1976, when India signed that deal and
ratified it. The Ministry of Environment and
Forests, govt. of India has constituted special
CITES cell. This is done with an aim to
strengthen the enforcement of the CITES
regulations. The cell will assist in various
functioning for CITES implementation in India.
The Additional Director General of Forests has
been appointed as the Member Secretary of the
National Tiger Conservation Authority. So far
the government has argued that the provision of
CITES will be only implemented by the way of
Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972 and the export
import policy. Though CITE believes that their
convention has not been implied properly.

15. TRAFFIC
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•TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network, works to ensure that trade in wild
plants and animals is not a threat to the
conservation of nature.
•The TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade
Monitoring Network, is a leading non-
governmental organisation working on wildlife
trade in the context of both biodiversity
conservation and sustainable development.
•It is a joint program of World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) and the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
•It was established in 1976 and has
developed into a global network, research-
driven and action-oriented, committed to
delivering innovative and practical
conservation solutions.
•The TRAFFIC is governed by the TRAFFIC
Committee, a steering group composed of
members of TRAFFIC's partner
organizations, WWF and IUCN.

16. Illegal Wildlife
Trade in India
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As per WWF, the second largest threat to
existence of animals is illegal wildlife trade.
India is among the top 20 countries for
illegal wildlife trade. Chennai and Mumbai
airports act as key destinations and origin
points for traffickers.
Trade in over 1800 species of wild animals,
plants and their derivative is prohibited
under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

17. • In response to a question asked in parliament, Union Minister of
State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Babul Supriyo
said that a total of 1,256 cases of illegal trading of wildlife and
poaching of endangered animals were recorded between 2017 and
2019, and 2,313 offenders arrested.
• 313 alerts and advisories were issued by the Wildlife Crime Control
Bureau (WCCB) between 2017 and 2020 for preventive action
against poaching and illegal trade of wildlife.
• According to the data available with the WCCB and provided by
states and UTs, the minister said 478 endangered animals were
killed in 2017, 492 in 2018 and 286 in 2019. The animals were
victims of poaching and illegal trafficking.
• The total number of accused arrested for wildlife poaching and illegal
trafficking of wild animals during the last three years are -- 880 in
2017, 858 in 2018 and 575 in 2019
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18. Airplane:
Biggest carriers
of illegal wildlife
trade in Indai
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India is among the top 20 countries for the
illegal wildlife trade and its fast expanding
airport sector is often used by wildlife
traffickers to smuggle high-end, high-value
species and products.
Over 31% of trafficked items were in checked
luggage in India (43% globally) followed by air
cargo at 20%, seizure data shows.
India’s fast-growing air transport sector can
pose a major problem- Saket Badola, head of
the India office of TRAFFIC.
The number of airports in India increased
from 50 in 2009 to 127 in 2019, including 23
international airports which handled 66.54
million passengers in 2019-2020.

19. • In 2019-2020 there were 114 violations related to the Wild Life
Protection Act of India and EXIM Policy [foreign trade policy];
and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• India scores 82% in the country enforcement index, with
officials having made 71 of the 97 possible seizures at airports.
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20. How can we
improve?
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We have been long enough spending on
wars that exist between two nations. But for
a long time we have ignored the war that
the animal protectors fight against the
hunters and poachers.
A lot of people claim that the government
needs to educate people to stop using
these products. But what we forget is that
the law of demand and supply are
interconnected. It is near to impossible to
control the equilibrium by just influencing
one law. We need to change the way we
have been fighting these sellers. What a
person buys may think it of as a legally
viable product. But that exactly may not
have happened.

21. How can we
improve?
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One of the dilemmas that India is facing in trying to
save tigers, elephants, lion-tailed macaques and
such other highly endangered wildlife species is the
problem that there are human settlements inside
many of our protected areas. Unlike in the heartland
of rain forests in Africa or Amazonia, in our case we
are not talking of very primitive cultures that are
simply living off the land at very low densities of 4-5
people per 100 Sq Km. We are talking of entire
villages of people with aspirations for improving their
economic status, who are carrying on agriculture
and raising livestock to generate cash incomes.
The projects turn out to be ineffective because of
the rapid involvement of humans with forest. In a
country where tigers are only limited to few
thousands, tribal people can now not use and must
not be allowed to use such endangered species for
themselves. It is government’s duty to provide them
with the alternatives. Though tribals sometime prove
to beneficial in stopping illegal wildlife trade. Best
example of this is the Bhisnoi tribe.
By using Social Impact Bonds

22. Conclusion
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Human greed has costed a lot of problems.
We have seen 2 world wars, cold wars and
numerous people practicing inhumane
practices because of greed. Illegal wildlife
trade is just the output of the human greed.
The laws as such are not poor or bad. They
are sufficient enough to control the trade. It is
strictness that we need. Though some of the
existing law surely needs upgradation. India
must adopt the CITE guidelines and laws to
save these animals from getting extinct. We
need a stronger force of forest rangers who
can stand up to the hunters and poachers.
These forest rangers live in poor condition to
fight the increasing illegal wildlife trade.
Expenditure on them should also be
increased. And at last we as a member of
society, must ensure that we don’t hep this
industry by any means. We need to make
sure of what we buy and use.