Wildlife Conservation (Part 2) Notes for UPSC Exam

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Anecdote

• The High Court of Delhi observed that Birds have the fundamental right to live with dignity" an
d fly in the sky without being kept in cages or subjected to cruelty.

Issue - Fish Ladders

• A fish ladder is a structure designed to allow fish the opportunity to migrate upstream over or
through a barrier to fish movement. Such barriers include dams, culverts, waterfall etc.

Need for Fish ladder

• Obstruction in rivers like dams fragments aquatic eco-system and affect fish population causing
its decline especially to migratory fishes like salmon, steelhead etc. which come to rivers from
oceans for spawning.
• In some extreme cases it has led to complete loss of fish species. An effective fish ladder can be
critical in protection and recovery of many fishes.

Indian Context

• In India Hilsa travels from Bay of Bengal to rivers like Hooghly, Ganga and Yamuna for the
purpose of spawning. They lay their eggs in the fresh water of these rivers and then return back
to the sea.
• The commissioning of Farakka Barrage has obstructed the journey of the fishes which are no
longer able to move beyond Bay of Bengal.
• This has resulted in heavy congregation of fish below the barrage which are indiscriminately
caught before they breed.
• Creation of fish ladders will help Hilsa to travel upstream to breed and maintaining its
population.

Issue - Killing of Gorilla “Harman” so as to save a 4 year old kid

• That the child was in danger of being mauled by a huge primate must have put the zoo
authorities in the horns of a dilemma. His desperate cries and the parents’ anxiety might have
forced them to take immediate and decisive action.
• He perhaps wanted to rescue the child from the moat. He knew this much: that he had
unexpectedly got a companion to care for and carry around. He was not aware that his sharp
finger nails could wound a human child.

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 • for the parents of the child it was a terrible moment.
• Rational decision by zoo authorities but devoid of moral worth
• Animal lovers are blaming the parents for negligence and zoo authorise for insensivity
• What was thought to be expedient at that critical moment was done.
• Shows that human race has not made much progress on moral plane
• Aristotle rightly said: “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and
justice he is the worst.”

Issue - Culling of Animals

• • Environment Ministry recently provided a spate of clearances allowing culling of several

species in different states.
• • The state Boards were permitted to declare animals that were coming in conflict with humans
like nilgai, rhesus monkey, wild pigs etc. as vermin in Bihar, HP and Uttarakhand
• • This means that those who kill these animals will, for a year, will not be subject to the jail
terms and fines that hunting these animals typically invite.
• • Wild animals are protected by the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 under which animals and
birds are classified, on the basis of threats they face, into four schedules.
o • The highly endangered tiger is in the highest Schedule 1 and hares in Schedule 4.
o • Each class gets different grades of protection and the law allows all, except Schedule 1
animals, to betemporarily slotted as Schedule 5 or ‘vermin.’
o • Nilgai, wild pig and rhesus macaque come under schedule 2 and 3.
• • In response to a petition, SC refused to stay the notification that allowed for the culling
• •.Animal Welfare Board has questioned the “vermin” decision and called it arbitrary.

Problems

• Ever-increasing human population, especially in the forest fringe areas giving rise to human-
wildlife conflict
• Loss of habitat: mismatch between the sizes of Protected Areas and the number of target
species or group of species supposed to live in the same habitat.
• non availability of fodder or prey
• Fall in predator population: Fall in population of predators such as tigers and leopards leads to a
consequential rise in population of herbivores such as nilgai and deer.
• Drought: If natural calamities such as drought affect human beings, so is the case with animals
in the forest. Drought dries up availability of food for foraging driving wild animals into nearby
crop fields and human dwellings in search of food.
• Humans feeding animals: Last but not the least, if you are a tourist offering a banana to a
monkey you saw at the temple, you sure cannot complain when a troop of monkeys comes
chasing after you asking for more

Ethics

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 • Justice: When wild animals invade human agricultural fields, they can be killed. But when the
human population encroaches upon the habitat of the wild species, what system of judgment
the civilised society of homo sapiens prescribes?
• Utilitarian: Wildlife conservation is essential for survival of human beings. Just one species,
homo sapiens, cannot survive on its own.

Suggestion

• Unless conservation area declared for protection has enough grazing field for herbivores and
enough prey for predatory carnivores, straying will continue to occur.
• contingency plan and well-trained forest guards to trap such animals, unharmed and bring them
back to their habitats. Eg - Such methods have been used in Sundarbans with Tigers
• Habitat must have enough food.
• deploying animal early warning systems, providing timely public information on presence and
movements of species such as elephants to local people to facilitate precautionary measures,
and attending to health and safety needs that reduce the risk of wildlife encounters.
• ovision of amenities such as lighting, indoor toilets, and rural public bus services help reduce
accidental human deaths
• Crop insurance for wildlife damage, which the Environment Ministry recently recommended
be included in the National Crop/Agricultural Insurance Programme, also deserves trial
• use modern technology such as mobile phones for SMS alerts
• nation-wide policy framework to manage human-wildlife conflict

Way forward

• Servicing human needs, enhancing local amenities, and adopting science-based and sustained
interventions will provide more lasting solutions.
• A moratorium on culling will thus help redirect attention to where it is really needed and be in
the best long-term interests of people and wildlife.

Issue - Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus)

• On Wednesday, Maharashtra decided to categorize nilgai and wild boars, so far listed in
Schedule 3 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as "vermin”. Why?
o Castration not feasible as animal has to be caught
o injecting them with medicine that make them sterile is difficult as every animal has to
be kept track of
o there has been significant rise in their numbers as they are prolific breederrs
o it causes so to crops and property for which compensation has to be paid

Background

• The nilgai or blue bull, sometimes called the neelghae or nilgau, is the largest Asian antelope.
• The sole member of the genus Boselaphus, the species was first described by German zoologist
Peter Simon Pallas in 1766

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 • the "gai" in the name, however, gives this creature a special status among several communities
in North India.

Centre eases process to declare wildlife vermin

• Increasing man-animals conflict that causes damage to crops and other human property has led
the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) to ask states to send
proposals to declare wild animals vermin for specified period in a given area.

Implications:

• Once declared vermin, that particular species can be hunted or culled without restriction.
• If implemented, it will apply to wild animals listed in various Schedules of the Wildlife
Protection Act (WPA) 1972, other than Schedule I & Part II of Schedule II that lists most
endangered and iconic species like tigers, leopards, and elephants.
• MoEFCC has asked states to send proposals to declare wild animals or herds of them as vermin
if they have become dangerous to human life or property, or if they have become so disabled
or diseased as to be beyond recovery.
• While declaring animals as vermin, officials will not have to give any justification to hunt them
as is the case with Schedule I animals like tigers and leopards.

Problems associated:

• Officials and environmentalists fear that protected species could be hunted in the name of
eliminating vermin. They point out it is not easy for field staff to differentiate meat of chital
from nilgai’s or wild boar.

Issue - Dog menace

• Recent incident in Noida where a kid was eaten alive by a dog

• Going by World Health Organisation (WHO) norms of 2003, one person dies every 30 minutes
due to rabies across the globe, and there occurs one instance of dog bite every two seconds.
• India accounts for a lion’s share of death due to rabies
• The Prevention of Cruelty to animals 1Act mandates that “unwanted animals” would be killed or
destroyed “either instantaneously or after being rendered insensible to pain or suffering”
whenever it was deemed necessary.

Issues involved

• Human animal conflict

• Social questions - Dog has been regarded as men’s best friend
• Developmental challenge

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 • Rabies spreading
• Increase in population of dogs
• Calls for mass culling

Reason behind increasing dog population

• slipshod urban planning

• failure on the part of local and State governments to put in place an efficient waste
management system
• poor civic sense

Problem due to street dogs

• almost every case of death by rabies is caused by dog bites

Benefits of street dogs

• effective scavenging agency

• check on the growth of rodent population.

Legal provisions

• Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 allows Animal Welfare Board to take all such steps as
the Board may think fit to ensure that unwanted animals are eliminated by the local authorities.
• Section 9(f) empowers the Board to kill stray animals either instantaneously or after being
rendered insensible to pain or suffering.
• Section 11(3)(b)(c) provides for “destruction of stray dogs in lethal chambers” and
“extermination or destruction of any animal under the authority of any law for the time being in
force”.

SC judgement

• SC said that indiscriminate killing of dogs wasn’t warranted

• SC also asked to implement animal birth control program
• Authorities need to strike a balance between compassion to stray dogs and lives of human
beings. Humans should not suffer due to dog bite because of administrative lapses.
• Municipal authorities to follow the law under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and
stop public lynching of stray dogs
• The bench also sought response on how to implement effective vaccination and sterilization for
stray dogs for controlling their population

Way forward

• The root cause of the problem — uncontrolled urban waste accumulation in public spaces —
should be tackled at the level of the local governments.

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 • Simultaneously, State authorities should initiate steps to neuter the dog population so that
their presence in the streets does not create panic among the public and there is no public
clamour for mass culling (with control programmes)
• The timeless bond between dogs and humans cannot be sacrificed at the altar of societal
ignorance and administrative inefficiencies.
• Scientific export of canine could be looked into as there is high demand for dog meat in China,
Indonesia
• The government must provide adequate number of dog vans with ramps for the capture and
transportation of street dogs.
• Authorities must provide ambulance-cum-clinical van as mobile centre for sterilisation

Campaign - NoMore50

• Currently, the maximum penalty even for the most heinous form of animal abuse is a petty Rs
50 -- the reason why the campaign to call for stronger and higher penalties is called the
NoMore50.
• The NoMore50 is a campaign from the well known animal rights groups - the Humane Society
International/India and the People for Animals
• These organisations believe that the NoMore50 is an opportunity for people to stand up and
make their voice heard for animals.
• Parliamentarians from different political parties and celebrities from the movie and music world
joined hands with animal rights groups

Need

• he penalty in the PCA Act for killing, mutilating and maiming an animal has never been revised.
Animal abusers have taken advantage of this feeble law and have continued to inflict
unsurmountable amount of cruelty on animals
• The penalties in the PCA Act, in its current framework, serve no purpose to protect and benefit
animals
• Need amendments

Preventing cruelty while transporting Livestocks - Rules notified in Kerala

• Kerala state government has notified stringent rules for livestock transportation.
• These rules are aimed at curbing cruelty to animals.
• It specifies that
o Each animal should be carried in individual compartment.
o Special licences should be allowed to vechiles used for animal transportation by RTO
o These vehicles shouldn’t be used for any other purpose
• Implication
o Would reduce the horrendous nightmare animal faces while getting transported
o Improve the lives tock conditions across the country

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HC judgement on horse carriages in Mumbai

• Bombay High Court banned Horse carriages in Mumbai tearing them illegal and directed the
authorities to phase them out in one year.
• The decision came based on the petition which said the horses were forced to overwork.

What else has the Court said?

• The Court also said that no wheeled vehicle hired for joyrides could be used for public
conveyance. Therefore, no licences can be granted for the victorias or carriages drawn or
propelled by the horses in Mumbai.
• The court further said that the carriages did not fall in the category of “public conveyance”
under the Bombay Public Conveyance Act 1920, and were only meant for joyrides.

What about those families whose livelihoods were dependent on these carriages?

• The court has directed the State to identify the number of families whose livelihoods were
connected with the running of horse carriages and come up with schemes for their
rehabilitation by December 2015. The government would also have to formulate schemes for
rehabilitation of the animals. There are approximately 700 families operating the business.
• After the expiry of the one-year period, the Mumbai Corporation would have to close down all
the stables meant for horses and ponies and take action under the provisions of the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Law Commission of India Submits its Report no. 261 on Animal Welfare Regulations (in context with
Pet shops)

• The report observes that pet shops and breeders violate provisions of animal welfare laws
with impunity, and recommends that it is necessary to regulate their practices.
• India has a pet trade estimated to have an annual turnover of 7000 crore rupees
• However, the business remains largely unregulated.
o This appears to because rules in this regard have not been issued under the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
• Reports suggest that these animals are kept in terribly inhumane conditions.
o For instance, it appears that puppies are drugged to prevent them from crying, large
birds are stuffed into small cages and fish become stressed and sometimes die
because of confinement, crowding, contaminated water and unnatural temperatures
• Government must seriously take cognizance of the issue and regulate such trade and breeding
practices.

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