Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedules and Provisions

The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is the law on which almost every wildlife question in Indian competitive exams rests. It is the statute that bans hunting, gives legal standing to national parks and sanctuaries, lists the species the State protects and fixes the punishment for killing them. Examiners like it because its structure turns easily into one-mark questions: a year, a schedule number, a section, an authority and the person who chairs it.

Why the Act was passed and where it applies

Before 1972 wildlife in India was governed mainly by the Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act, 1912 and a patchwork of princely and provincial rules that no longer matched the scale of poaching. Protection of wild animals and birds was then a State subject, so Parliament used Article 252 of the Constitution, which lets it legislate for two or more States when their legislatures pass enabling resolutions. The Act received the assent of the President on 9 September 1972. Four years later the 42nd Constitutional Amendment of 1976 moved forests and the protection of wild animals and birds to the Concurrent List as Entries 17A and 17B, so both the Centre and the States can now legislate on the subject. The Act originally did not extend to Jammu and Kashmir, which had its own 1978 law; after the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 the central Act applies to the whole of India.

The schedules: six before 2022, four after

The schedules are the heart of the Act, because the schedule a species sits in decides how severely an offence against it is punished. The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 rewrote this structure and reduced six schedules to four.

The new Schedule IV is the one students miss. It brings the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which India joined in 1976, directly into Indian law, and the amendment also provides for a Management Authority and a Scientific Authority to run the permit system.

Protected areas created under the Act

A sanctuary is notified under Sections 18 and 26A and a national park under Section 35. In a sanctuary the Chief Wild Life Warden may allow limited activity such as grazing; in a national park no grazing and no rights of any person are allowed, which is why a national park gives stricter protection. The boundaries of a national park or a sanctuary cannot be altered except on a resolution passed by the State Legislature. The 2002 amendment added two community-friendly categories: conservation reserves under Section 36A, usually on government land next to a park, and community reserves under Section 36C, on private or community land where people volunteer to conserve. The 2006 amendment added tiger reserves under Section 38V, each with a core or critical tiger habitat and a buffer zone and a tiger conservation plan.

Boards, authorities and officers

• Chief Wild Life Warden and Wild Life Wardens are appointed by the State Government under Section 4; the Chief Wild Life Warden is the key permit-granting officer.
• The National Board for Wild Life, created by the 2002 amendment under Section 5A, is chaired by the Prime Minister, and its Standing Committee by the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• The State Board for Wild Life is chaired by the Chief Minister of the State.
• The Central Zoo Authority was inserted as Chapter IVA by the 1991 amendment and recognises and regulates zoos.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority, created by the 2006 amendment, gave Project Tiger, launched on 1 April 1973, a statutory footing.
• The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, also from the 2006 amendment, is a multi-disciplinary enforcement body with its headquarters in New Delhi.

Hunting, trade and penalties

Hunting is defined very widely in Section 2 and covers killing, capturing, trapping, poisoning, injuring an animal and even damaging the eggs or nests of birds and reptiles. Section 9 prohibits hunting of the protected species. Section 11 is the escape valve: the Chief Wild Life Warden may permit the killing of a protected animal that has become dangerous to human life or is so disabled or diseased that it is beyond recovery. Under Section 39 every wild animal, animal article, trophy or derivative taken in breach of the Act is the property of the Government. For an offence against a Schedule I animal the punishment is imprisonment of not less than three years, extending up to seven years, together with a fine; other offences carry imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine, or both. The 2022 amendment raised the fines sharply and also regulated the keeping and transfer of captive elephants.