There
are 909 entries of taxa (including species, genus, families, orders and
classes) of animals, birds and plants in the various Schedules of the Wild Life
(Protection) Act, 1972. The names of protected species of animals, birds and
plants in the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 mentioned at Schedule 1 of Wild
Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is available on the Ministry’s website
–www.moef.nic.in.
Towards
the protection of those species, the Governrment has established a country-wide
protected area network (730 Protected Areas including 103 National Parks, 535
Wildlife Sanctuaries, 26 Community Reserves, and 66 Conservation Reserves in
different bio-geographic regions), under the provisions of the Wild Life
(Protection) Act, 1972 to conserve wild animals and their habitats of
threatened flora and fauna. Other steps taken by the Government to ensure
protection of these species are as under:
i. Legal
protection has been provided to wild animals against hunting and commercial
exploitation under the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
ii. Special
programmes like ‘Project Tiger’ and ‘Project Elephant’ have been launched for
conservation of these endangered species and their habitats.
iii.
A
specific component of “Recovery programmes for saving critically endangered
species and habitats’ is provided in the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of
‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’ for focused conservation action
on selected critically endangered species.
iv. Financial
and technical assistance is provided to the State/ Union Territory (UT)
Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes for providing better
protection to wildlife including endangered species and improvement of its
habitat.
v. The
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been empowered under the Wild Life
(Protection) Act, 1972 to apprehend and prosecute wildlife offenders.
vi. The
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has been set up to ensure co-ordination
among various officers and State Governments in connection with the enforcement
of law for control of poaching and illegal trade in wildlife and its products. In
this endeavour WCCB has undertaken a number of steps like Intelligence led
enforcement, sensitization on smuggling wildlife articles to Border Guarding
forces and Customs, Interagency coordination of enforcement, inclusion of
wildlife smuggling in bilateral and multilateral discussion and spreading awareness
and education campaigns for various stakeholders.
vii. Biological
Diversity Act, 2002, was inter-alia enacted to ensure protection of threatened
species and their habitats. Under the provisions of Section 38 of the National
Biodiversity Act, 2002, the species which are on the verge of extinction or
likely to become extinct in near future as threatened species, are notified.
Ministry has already issued notifications for 16 states and 2 UTs to this
effect.
viii. Botanical
Survey of India has brought a number of endemic/threatened plants under
cultivation in its Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden in
Howrah, Botanic Garden of Indian Republic, Noida and other associated botanic
gardens of its regional centres for their ex-situ conservation, thereby
complementing the in-situ conservation of such species in protected
areas established in different bio-geographical regions of the country.
Several
species of turtles and snakes have been seized from different parts of the
country. As per the available records of the WCCB based on the information
received from the State Forest and Police departments, the year wise details of
the number of cases detected on the seizure of turtle/tortoise and snake during
the last three years and the current year are as under:
|
Year
|
Turtle/Tortoise
|
Snakes
|
|
2013
|
13
|
17
|
|
2014
|
71
|
19
|
|
2015
|
52
|
10
|
|
2016
(up-to 30.06.2016)
|
6
|
3
|
No set procedure is available to assign
monetary value to the seized wildlife species in the country. Moreover
assigning value to the seized contraband may instigate more poaching/illegal
trade of the species. Offences detected and offenders arrested for offences
against the scheduled species are dealt with as per the provisions of the Wild
Life (Protection) Act, 1972 by the concerned enforcement agencies.
This information was given
by Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change, Shri Anil Madhav Dave, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha
today.
***
HK
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