The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 as amended in 2022

1. Why protect wildlife, and why species decline

June 2025 asked this as a 10-mark question. Wildlife matters for ecological balance (predators control prey, pollinators sustain crops, forests depend on seed dispersers), for genetic resources (medicine, agriculture), for economic value (tourism, livelihoods of forest communities), for scientific and educational value, for cultural and religious reasons, and for its own sake on an ecocentric view (Centre for Environment Law, WWF-I, 2013).

Causes of extinction: habitat loss and fragmentation (agriculture, dams, mining, roads, urbanisation); poaching and illegal trade (tiger skin and bones, rhino horn, ivory, pangolin scales); pollution and pesticides (the collapse of vultures from diclofenac); invasive alien species; climate change; human-wildlife conflict and retaliatory killing; disease; and, for the Great Indian Bustard, collisions with power lines. The cheetah became extinct in India by the early 1950s; the Asiatic lion survives only in Gir.

2. Salient features

• A uniform law for the whole of India, made after forests and wildlife moved to the Concurrent List in 1976 (the Act was first adopted under Article 252 and later applied generally).
• Schedules, after 2022: Schedule I (animals with the highest protection), Schedule II (animals with lesser protection), Schedule III (protected plants) and Schedule IV (specimens listed in the CITES Appendices). The old Schedule V (vermin) was dropped; under s.62 the Central Government may declare an animal in Schedule II to be vermin for a specified area and period.
• Prohibition of hunting (s.9) and of picking specified plants (s.17A).
• Protected areas: sanctuaries (s.18), national parks (s.35), conservation reserves (s.36A) and community reserves (s.36C), and tiger reserves (s.38V).
• Regulation of zoos through the Central Zoo Authority (s.38A).
• Wild animals and articles derived from them are Government property (s.39).
• Control of trade: licences for dealing in trophies and animal articles (Chapter V), a near ban on trade in Schedule I animals and imported ivory (Chapter VA), and international trade under CITES (Chapter VB, added in 2022).
• Penalties (s.51), forfeiture of illegally acquired property (Chapter VIA), and a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (s.38Y).
• Rights of Scheduled Tribes in Scheduled Areas are protected (s.65).

3. Authorities under the Act

• Director of Wild Life Preservation (Centre) and Chief Wild Life Warden (State), with wildlife wardens and honorary wardens (ss.3 and 4).
• National Board for Wild Life (s.5A), chaired by the Prime Minister, with the Union Minister for Forests and Wild Life as Vice-Chairperson, three Members of Parliament, the NITI Aayog member in charge of environment, five representatives of NGOs, ten eminent conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists, the Chief of the Army Staff, and secretaries of the concerned Ministries, among others. Its duty (s.5C) is to promote the conservation and development of wildlife and forests: frame policy and advise governments on conservation and on control of poaching and illegal trade; recommend on the setting up and management of protected areas; carry out impact assessment of projects on wildlife; review progress; and publish a status report at least once in two years.
• Standing Committee of the National Board (s.5B): the Vice-Chairperson, the Member-Secretary and up to ten members; in practice it clears projects in and around protected areas.
• State Board for Wild Life (s.6), chaired by the Chief Minister, advising the State on selection and management of protected areas and on wildlife policy (s.8). The 2022 amendment added a Standing Committee of the State Board (s.6A).
• Central Zoo Authority (s.38A), which recognises zoos (s.38H).
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (s.38L), added in 2006, which approves tiger conservation plans and lays down standards for tiger reserves.
• Steering Committee (s.38U), asked as a note in January 2026. A tiger range State may constitute a Steering Committee for co-ordination, monitoring, protection and conservation of the tiger, co-predators and prey animals. It consists of the Chief Minister (Chairperson); the Minister in charge of Wild Life (Vice-Chairperson); up to five official members, including at least two Field Directors of tiger reserves or Directors of national parks and one from the department dealing with tribal affairs; three experts in wildlife conservation, at least one from tribal development; two members of the State's Tribal Advisory Council; one representative each of the departments of Panchayati Raj and of Social Justice and Empowerment; and the Chief Wild Life Warden as Member-Secretary.
• Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (s.38Y), and the Management and Scientific Authorities for CITES (ss.49E and 49F).

4. Hunting: prohibition and exceptions

“Hunting” (s.2(16)) includes killing or poisoning any wild or captive animal and every attempt to do so; capturing, coursing, snaring, trapping, driving or baiting; injuring, destroying or taking any part of the body; and, for birds and reptiles, damaging eggs or nests. Section 9: no person shall hunt any wild animal specified in Schedules I and II except as provided in sections 11 and 12. January 2026 asked for the cases in which hunting is permitted:

• s.11(1)(a), Schedule I animals: the Chief Wild Life Warden, if satisfied that the animal has become dangerous to human life or is so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery, may by written order with reasons permit it to be hunted. No animal shall be ordered to be killed unless he is satisfied that it cannot be captured, tranquillised or translocated, and a captured animal may not be kept in captivity unless it cannot be rehabilitated in the wild.
• s.11(1)(b), Schedule II animals: the Chief Wild Life Warden or an authorised officer may permit hunting of an animal, or a group of animals in a specified area, that has become dangerous to human life or to property, including standing crops, or is disabled or diseased beyond recovery.
• s.11(2), self-defence: killing or wounding a wild animal in good faith in defence of oneself or another is not an offence, unless the person was himself acting in contravention of the Act when the need arose. The animal so killed is Government property (s.11(3)).
• s.12, special purposes: the Chief Wild Life Warden may grant a permit to hunt for education, scientific research, scientific management (translocation to an alternative habitat, or population management without killing), collection of specimens for recognised zoos or museums, and derivation of snake venom for life-saving drugs. A permit for a Schedule I animal needs the previous permission of the Central Government; for any other animal, of the State Government.
• s.62: an animal declared vermin is outside Schedule II for the notified area and period and may then be hunted.

5. Trade in animal articles

• Chapter V: no person may deal in trophies, animal articles or uncured trophies of scheduled animals, or act as a taxidermist, without a licence (s.44); declaration of stock (s.40); certificates of ownership (s.42); and, since 2022, voluntary surrender of captive animals and articles (s.42A).
• Chapter VA (1986): no person shall carry on business as manufacturer of or dealer in articles derived from Schedule I animals, or deal in imported ivory (s.49B). Its validity was upheld in Indian Handicrafts Emporium v. Union of India, 2003 INSC 427, (2003) 7 SCC 589: the ban on trade in imported ivory is a reasonable restriction under Article 19(6) to save endangered species.
• Chapter VB (2022): international trade in scheduled specimens only under permits issued by the Management Authority, as CITES requires.

6. Penalties

Section 51: contravention of the Act is punishable with imprisonment up to three years or fine up to one lakh rupees (raised from twenty-five thousand in 2022), or both. Where the offence relates to a Schedule I animal or its articles, to hunting in a sanctuary or national park, or to a CITES Appendix I specimen, imprisonment is not less than three years and up to seven years, with a fine of not less than twenty-five thousand rupees (one lakh for a second offence). Contravention of Chapter VA carries three to seven years. Cognizance is on complaint by the officers listed in s.55 or a person who has given sixty days' notice. The Act has not been decriminalised.

7. Judicial approach

• State of Bihar v. Murad Ali Khan, 1988 INSC 316, (1988) 4 SCC 655: the High Court had quashed a complaint for killing an elephant in a reserve forest; the Supreme Court restored the prosecution and stressed that offences against wildlife must be pursued seriously.
• Essar Oil Ltd. v. Halar Utkarsh Samiti, 2004 INSC 40, (2004) 2 SCC 392: a pipeline through the Marine National Park could be permitted under ss.29 and 35(6) if it does not destroy the habitat, with safeguards.
• Centre for Environment Law, WWF-I v. Union of India, 2013 INSC 254, (2013) 8 SCC 234: Asiatic lions to be translocated from Gir to Kuno to secure a second habitat; species protection is ecocentric.
• M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 280: protection of the Great Indian Bustard balanced against renewable energy, with an expert committee; climate change recognised as an Article 21 concern.
• The Godavarman forest case has also produced orders on eco-sensitive zones around protected areas.

How this is examined

January 2026: hunting permitted (10 marks) and the Steering Committee (6). February 2025: the National Board for Wild Life (6). June 2025: why protect wildlife and causes of extinction (10). August 2024: salient features (10). For the hunting answer, give s.2(16), s.9 and then the four exceptions with their conditions; for the Board notes, composition and functions under ss.5A to 5C.