The Government of India notified Wild Life (Protection) Licensing (Additional Matters for Consideration) Rules, 2024 on January 16, 2024.
Key points
- These fresh guidelines are related to granting licences to stakeholders involved in snake venom, captive animals, trophy animals and stuffed animals.
- The revised notification came into effect on January 16, the first revision since 1983.
- The rules now allow for the granting of licenses to trade in certain species, which were previously restricted.
- The rules from 1983 prohibited issuing licences to trade in a wild animal categorised under Schedule I or Part II of Schedule II under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The licences were granted in exceptional cases with previous approval of the central government.
- The new guidelines prohibit issuing licences to trade in a wild animal categorised under Schedule I.
- In 2022, the central government amended Wildlife Protection Act which merged four schedules of wild animals in two reducing the six schedules to four.
- As per the revised amendments Schedule I includes animals requiring utmost protection while Schedule II has species needing comparatively lower protection.
- Plant species have been listed under Schedule III while Schedule IV is dedicated to species to be protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
