August 2, 2022
Aparupa Poddar’s speech on Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021
: Thank you, Sir, for allowing me to speak on the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021. I also thank my
party for giving me this opportunity. The Act also lists schedules of plants and animals that are afforded
various degrees of protection and monitoring by the Government. Today, through this Bill, this Act will be amended after 16 years. I welcome this step. The most important reason given by the Environment Ministry for introducing the Bill was the urgent need to provide legislative backing to commitments made by India over the past many years to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals that came into force in 1975. Now, I would like to discuss about theprovisions of the Bill. The Bill seeks to implement provisions of Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The Bill provides powers to the Central Government to designate a Management Authority, which grants export or import permits for trade of specimens. The Bill prohibits any person from
modifying or removing the identification mark of the specimen. Currently, the Act has six schedules for specially protected plants, specially protected animals, and vermin species. The Bill reduces the total number of schedules to four. The Bill empowers the Central Government to regulate or prohibit the import, trade, possession or proliferation of invasive alien species. Invasive alien species refers to plant or animal species which are not native to India and whose introduction may adversely impact wildlife or its habitat. The Central Government may authorize an officer to seize and dispose the invasive species. Sir, through you, I would like to draw the attention of the Minister that our
State of West Bengal has border areas of dense forest with our neighbouring country Bangladesh. We have witnessed rising case of smuggling of Kangaroo a few days ago in Jalpaiguri forest. The Forest Department has seized it. The
Kangaroos are the exotic species to India and they do not natively belong here. They struggle to adopt to this new eco-system and are mostly unsuccessful. They also carry the risk of disease that the native species might not have
resistance. It is a very serious and alarming concern. The Central Government should take a note of it and such border areas should be freezed. The Act entrusts the Chief Wild Life Warden to control, manage and maintain all the sanctuaries in a State. The Chief Wild Life Warden is appointed by the State Government. The Bill specifies that the actions of the Chief Warden must be in accordance with the management plans for the sanctuary. For
sanctuaries falling under special areas, the management plan must be prepared after due consultation with the Gram Sabha concerned. Sir, West Bengal has six national parks and sixteen wild life sanctuaries. The latest notified sanctuary of West Bengal is the Pakhibitan Wild Life Sanctuary located in Jalpaiguri district which is of 14.09 square kilometres. Sir, in West Bengal, our Government has also successfully done the sustained efforts to build awareness among the people which led to drop in ritualistic hunting by 95 per cent. The Bill provides for any person to voluntarily surrender any captive animals or animal products to the Chief Wild Life Warden. No compensation will
be paid to the person for surrendering such items. The surrendered items become the property of the State Government. Sir, through you, I would like to give some observations and suggestions to the hon. Minister, and I hope, he will answer to my queries on this Bill. The Parliamentary Committee recommended the deletion of this
exemption clause for elephants and argued that a careful balance between traditions and conservation was needed. The Bill empowers the Government to have arbitrary powers to declare species as ‘vermin’. Moreover, the Bill moots a reduction in the role of the State Wild Life Boards. These are the bodies which are crucial in determining the fate of large projects involving forests or protected areas in the States. Finally, the Bill loses the provisions of transporting the elephants which is likely to encourage illegal trade in wild elephants. Sir, the Bill fails to address the human-animal conflict. There is a need to constitute Human-Animal Conflict Advisory Committee, headed by the Chief
Wild Life Warden to suggest mitigation strategies such as changing of cropping patterns and drawing up site-specific plans. Sir, the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 specially prohibits trade in wild animals including captive and wild elephants. Under Sections 40 and 43 of the law, transfer, acquiring and receiving of a live captive elephant is permissible only with the prior approval of the Chief Wild Life Warden. However, such transfer, acquisition, and receiving of the elephants should not involve any commercial transaction. Sir, the Bill introduces a new sub-section 4 to Section 43 that takes away the protection from trade in them. The House Panel Report has recommended
the deletion of the clause and provided an explanation of provisions for transport of captive elephants. It underlined that the Bill also has the provisions of excessive delegation and unrestricted power of the Central Government. I
repeat, the Bill also has the provisions of excessive delegation and unrestricted power of the Central Government.
सभापति जी, यतद सारेअतधकार सैंरल गवनामेंट केहाथ मेंहोंगेिो राज्य सरकार का क्या मिलब रह जाएगा? So, I would request the hon. Minister to take note of my suggestions as well as the suggestions given by the environmental experts and
the Parliamentary Standing Committee. With these words, I conclude. Thank you.
