The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has come out with an advisory on a one-time voluntary disclosure scheme that allows owners of exotic live species that have been acquired illegally, or without documents, to declare their stock to the government between June and December 2020.
With this scheme, the government aims to address the challenge of zoonotic diseases, develop an inventory of exotic live species for better compliance under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and regulate their import. In its current form, however, the amnesty scheme is just an advisory, not a law.
The advisory has defined exotic live species as animals named under the Appendices I, II and III of the CITES. It does not include species from the Schedules of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972. So, a plain reading of the advisory excludes exotic birds from the amnesty scheme.
Now the question is what is CITES? Well, it is an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in wild animals, birds and plants does not endanger them. India is a member. Appendices I, II and III of CITES list 5,950 species as protected against over-exploitation through international trade. Many of these animals, such as iguanas, lemurs, civets, albino monkeys, coral snakes, tortoises, are popular as exotic pets in India.
The disclosure has to be done online through MoEFCC’s Parivesh portal. The owner of the animal(s) will have to declare the stock as on January 1, 2020 to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the concerned state or Union Territory. This will be followed by a physical verification of the animals.
The CWLW will have to issue an online certificate of possession of exotic live species within six months of the date of the voluntary disclosure. After the registration, it is mandatory for the owner to allow the CWLW with free access to the exotic species declared on any day for verification.
