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WILDLIFE TRADE: A Massive Catastrophe

By Neeraj Anand

National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi

"between 2007-08, among all seizures of wildlife across the planet, two-thirds only consisted of tiger bones. Moreover, the report revealed that Thailand and India were the primary sources for those seizures..."

Recent reintroduction of cheetahs in India from South Africa and Namibia has raised the topic of “Wildlife Trade” once again. Cheetahs, set foot on Indian Subcontinent once again after the native Asiatic Cheetahs went extinct for more than 70 years. Among various visible advantages like broadening of fauna, protection of an endangered species and respect for the wildlife and forest, there lies deep catastrophic bones of harm and contention. In fact, wildlife trade by any mode, be it through bilateral or multilateral agreement or through illegal trafficking, has more harm to it than predicted prosperity it is supposed to bring.

In these times of crisis, we are duty-bound to know about the underlying harms in order to prevent the calamity caused by such wildlife trade.

Revisiting International Animal Protection Laws

There isn’t even a single, comprehensive law governing international animal welfare and protection. World-wide animal atrocities were not enough to trigger this planet into making a set of international animal protection laws. Lack of international consensus is leading to this current and ongoing incongruous treatment of animals across the world.

Countries across the world have united at various events to discuss upon the welfare of fauna. These countries have also signed into many multi-lateral animal protection conventions. Conventions such as Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) laid down certain regulations and criteria for animal welfare.

  • Article III [1], 1V [2] and V [3] of CITES talks about regulations of trade in specimens of species in a bilateral or multi-lateral agreement.

  • Article VIII of CITES [4] talks about measures which is to be taken by the parties agreeing to trade wildlife species.

  • Article VI of Convention on Biological Diversity [5] states general measures of conservation and sustainable use of traded wildlife.

But the loophole with such conventions is that any country may one day decide to ward off the obligations upon it as a ratified member along with membership and face no consequences for going against the principles of animal welfare laid by that agreement. Moreover, there are countless cases of illegal wildlife trafficking which knows no limits and takes place every year right under the nose of the government.

Massive Illegal Poaching: A look into the life of Asian Tigers

Tiger poaching across Asia has reached critical levels, driven by non-stop demands for illegal wildlife products. This ruthless poaching activity is emptying Asia’s forest to supply to the multi-billion dollar black market. The illegal breeding and poaching of Asian tigers for their bones, skin, teeth and other body parts has sky rocketed in recent years. Asian Big Cats are included under Appendix-I of CITES [6] which exclusively deals with “Most Endangered Species of Plants and Animals”.

According to UN World Wildlife Crime Report [7], between 2007-08, among all seizures of wildlife across the planet, two-thirds only consisted of tiger bones. Moreover, the report revealed that Thailand and India were the primary sources for those seizures. The Wildlife Crime Report added that out of 155 cases in which tiger trafficker’s nationality could be determined, 18% turned out to be of Indian origins whereas 29% were Chinese.

Duty of Circuses in relation to Animal Protection

Circuses use animals like lions, tigers and elephants to perform tricks in order to attract large crowd to earn money. To perform tricks, animals are put under a routine of rigorous torture by whips, tight collars and muzzles. Circuses easily get away with such routine tortures because Government does not surveil the training sessions of these animals and the trainers act cautiously when they perform in the public.

Animals ought not to be coerced to perform tricks in circuses in order to earn money for their human captors. Circuses should abandon the usage of animals in their shows as these “gifts of nature” also have the right to be free of exploitation and human use. In India, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) completely banned the use of any kind of wild animals under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act [8], to perform tricks and stunts, when all the circuses were not able to comply to the terms kept forward by the 2009 Recognition of Zoo Rules [9]. A year-long inspection was done by the Central Zoo Authority which found that not even a single circus in the entire nation abided by the regulations of the Zoo Rules. The Ministry quoted that “Cruelty is inherent in circuses” and “Wild animals have to undergo unnecessary suffering and pain while they are forced to perform a stunt”. For the sake of mother nature, the circuses should completely abstain from using these “wonders of nature” in their act and stop inflicting damages to these wild animals.

Legal status of wildlife trade: India and Overseas

The domain of trade and commerce in wild animals, animals and related articles is exclusively dealt with in Chapter V of Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 [10]. Article 43 [11] of the Act deals with Regulation of animal trade, etc., whereas, Article 48A [12] mentions the Restriction on transportation of wildlife. In addition to that, Chapter VA [13] deals with prohibition of trade or commerce in trophies, animal articles, etc., derived from certain animals.

Moreover, as per the amendment of 2009 in The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002[14], hunting of wild animals has been considered illegal. This was done keeping in mind the rapid hike in illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching.

In the similar manner, the United States deals with illicit wildlife trade through the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act of 2016 [15]. This Act administers the federal agencies to buttress the law enforcement and build international cooperation and commitment regarding the fauna trade.

Wildlife Protection Law, 2020 [16] talks about the legality of Wildlife Trade in People’s Republic of China. Chapter Three of this Law exclusively deals with the domain of animal administration in China including the field of wildlife trade. Article 28 [17] highlights the rules of wildlife trade in the country of China. But, major loopholes in this law leads to large supplies of illegal animal article flowing in and out of the country, thus, making China the largest importer of illegal wildlife and animal products, in the world.

Medical Research and Animal Testing

Every year, hundreds of animals of varied species are illegally poached for the purpose of medical research and animal testing. In China alone, pangolin scales are claimed to be of high medicinal value and has setup a multi-million dollar illegal market in the country. Considering the fact that pangolin scales contain nothing but keratin and has zero medicinal aspects, thousands of pangolins are killed every year in order to fulfil the high demand for their scales in the black market.

Animal Testing has also been the reason for sky-rocketing illegal wildlife trade. Horses, lizards, cows and rabbits are put on sale at black market just for the purpose of injecting them with lab-made illicit substances which results in either worsening their conditions to miserable extent or their death.

Leather for Life: Is it worth?

Illegality of Wildlife Trade can never be completely understood without mentioning the background of the modern world leather industry. Every single year the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals. Most of the leather in the world is illegitimately exported from countries with have no animal welfare laws or which have not triumphed in implementing such laws. This makes China, India and Myanmar chief leather exporters in the world. Millions of cows, snakes, pigs, horses, sheeps and zebras are sold unlawfully from these countries to leather and clothing industries. Leather products are the result of these innocent animals being illegally traded across borders, just to die at the hands of brutal wildlife traffickers.

Elephant Tusk Trade: Elephant at a Price

Rapid surge in demand for elephant’s ivory has stoked up this rampant poaching. More than 25,000 African Elephants are illegally killed for their tusks. These innocent creatures of the fauna suffer the barbaric treatment of hunters and poachers who bring down these big enchantresses just for their tusks and leave their bodies lying dead. This had brought the species of African Forest Elephants, African Savanna Elephants and Asian Elephants in the Annexure I of CITES[18] and has also put them on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species. Poachers have mindlessly killed these marvellous creatures for the sake filling their pockets and put these elephant species on the brink of extinction.

Despite of strong punishments for these illegal wildlife trading activities, poachers and traffickers do not seem to slow down. Wildlife trade needs to be looked upon from its hidden side to make people more aware of this untold “massive catastrophe”. Knowledge about such unbalanced situation at individual level will help at getting an important footing in this war against cold-blooded poachers, hunters and traffickers.


 

[1] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna art. 3, Mar. 3, 1973 [2] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna art. 4, Mar. 3, 1973 [3] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna art. 5, Mar. 3, 1973 [4] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna art. 8, Mar. 3, 1973 [5] Convention on Biological Diversity art. 6, Dec. 29, 1993 [6] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, Mar. 3, 1973 [7] United Nations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, May 9, 2016, https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/wildlife/World_Wildlife_Crime_Report_2016_final.pdf [8] Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Acts of Parliament, 1960 (India) [9] Recognition of Zoo Rules, 2009, Acts of Parliament, 2009 (India) [10] Chapter 5, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Acts of Parliament, 1972 (India) [11] Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, art. 43, Acts of Parliament, 1972 (India) [12] Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, art. 48A, Acts of Parliament, 1972 (India) [13] Chapter 5A, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Acts of Parliament, 1972 (India) [14] The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, Acts of Parliament, 2002 (India) [15] Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 7601-9644 (2016) [16] Wildlife Protection Law, 2020, P.R.C. Laws (China) [17] Wildlife Protection Law, 2020, art. 28, P.R.C. Laws (China) [18] Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, Mar. 3, 1973

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