In news

Non-Asian exotic animals rescued from cramped cages smuggled in from Myanmar have found a home — the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden in Guwahati.

Exotic Animals

• The term exotic does not have a set definition but it usually refers to a wild animal or one that is more unusual and rare than normal domesticated pets like cats or dogs.
• These are those species which are not usually native to an area and are introduced to an area by humans.
• Because of captivity, reptiles can become accidentally poisoned in a number of ways.
• The basic tenets of emergency medicine are the same for all animal species, despite their rare or exotic nature.

Exotic animal trade

Each year millions of exotic animals are sold around the world, destined for people’s basements and backyards. 

Some of this trade is legal, but many times animals are captured from the wild illegally to supply demand for exotic pets. The illicit sales of live animals comprises a major part of the overall illegal wildlife trade, a multibillion-dollar global black market.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued an advisory to streamline and formalise the process of importing live exotic animals.

Provisions

• For import and disclosure of exotic animals and their progeny already in India.
• A person trying to import a live exotic animal will have to submit an application for grant of a licence to the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
• Earlier, these imports were happening though the DGFT but they were beyond the purview of the forest departments and the chief wildlife wardens were not aware of them.
• The importer will also have to attach a No Objection Certificate (NOC) of the chief wildlife warden of the state concerned along with the application.
• For those people who have already imported exotic animals, a declaration will have to be made within six months.

Source: The Hindu