The Registration of exotic animals deadline in the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 is August 28, 2024. Individuals and organisations must report and register these animals via the PARIVESH 2.0 portal within six months of receiving the gazette notification or thirty days of possession.

The MOEFCC has set August 28, 2024, as the Registration of Exotic Animals deadline in the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 Schedule IV. Individuals possessing such specimens must report and record them electronically through the PARIVESH 2.0 portal.

The new reporting and registration rules were implemented under Section 49 M of the Act and were made public on February 28, 2024, via a Gazette Notification. Many people, organisations, and zoos currently own these exotic species. All parties have six months to comply, which expires on August 28, 2024. Failure to register exotic animals by the deadline through the PARIVESH 2.0 portal may result in legal action. The Ministry recommends immediate action to prevent legal implications.

Wildlife and animal rights specialists have criticised the Ministry’s decision to grant a six-month amnesty in 2020 to individuals or private entities that voluntarily report possessing any foreign species. They stated that these rules have regulated or regularised the holding of certain species.

In India, numerous species are recognised and preserved by the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972. However, exotic species are smuggled into India and bred in captivity without proper registration.

“Considering this, the Ministry released an advisory in June 2020 for Voluntary Disclosure of Exotic Live Species to establish an integrated information system for the collection of exotic live species at the State/Central level through voluntary disclosure and the utilisation of that database towards controlling and managing zoonotic diseases, and for enabling better management of the species and offering guidance to their holders for their proper care and well-being,” a note by the ministry states.

Between June and December 2020, 32,645 people declared they owned alien and native species. The disclosures are not public. Following that, the Wildlife Protection Amendment Act 2022 included measures for implementing CITES and formalizing the registration of exotic animal possession in the government database.

Activists have seen an increase in the smuggling of endangered, exotic animals from Southeast Asia and other areas of the world during the last year, which have allegedly been moved to private collectors in other regions of the country.

The final revision to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 includes exotic species listed under CITES in Schedule IV. The Living Animal Species (Reporting and Registration) Rules, issued on February 28, 2024, require anybody who owns these animals to register them with the MoEFCC within six months. On Tuesday, Debadityo Sinha, Lead- Climate & Ecosystems, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, stated that this fresh notification is a reminder to comply by the August 28 deadline or face penalties.

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