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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

18/10/23 06:52 AM IST

New schedules of the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act, 2022

In News
  • Many ecologists are enraged that an inordinate number of species have been included in the new schedules of the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act, 2022.
  • Schedule 1, which confers the highest protection, contains about 600 species of vertebrates and hundreds of invertebrates, while Schedule 2 contains about 2,000 species (with 1,134 species of birds alone).
Concerns
  • The WLPA was originally intended to regulate the use of various species (including hunting), restrict trade, and police the trafficking of species.
  • The new Act goes one step further by aligning itself with CITES, and including the CITES appendices as well.
  • The listing of species has two direct effects. One, even if it were to have benefits for conservation, species would have to be prioritised. Listing hundreds of species of mammals and over 1,000 species of birds and innumerable other taxa means that it is unclear where resources should be allocated on the basis of this list.
  • The same level of protection is offered to tigers and jackals, to the great Indian bustard and common barn owls, to the king cobra and rat snakes.
  • Second , the Tree Preservation Acts of Kerala and Karnataka proscribe the felling of native trees.
  • Instead of promoting conservation, these Acts disincentivise plantation owners from planting native trees, and promote exotics such as Silver Oak, that they can cut any time they need to.
  • A particularly absurd consequence of listing has been the presence of the spotted deer (chital) in Schedule 1.
  • Common throughout India, these are invasive in the Andaman Islands and have caused untold harm to the vegetation and herpetofauna. But they cannot be legally culled or removed because of the WLPA.
  • The new Act elevates wild pigs and nilgai to Schedule 1, which means that the few States that have now allowed limited culling of problematic animals may not be able to retain that policy.
Way forward
  • The three issues -conservation, people’s issues, and research – need to be attended to, with different degrees of urgency.
  • Those whose lives are at stake need to be safeguarded first.
  • Puerile animal rights arguments that result in the loss of human lives and livelihoods need to be disregarded.
  • Second, management actions for species and habitats need to be tailored to ecology, species biology, and context.
Source- The Hindu

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