New Delhi: According to a study by the Standing Committee on Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, which is chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Ministry needs to form an advisory group of specialists to deal with the escalating instances of human-animal conflict.

The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2021, is examined in this study. The Wild Life (Preservation) Act of 1972 establishes a legal framework for the protection of diverse wild animal and plant species, habitat management, and trade regulation and control in wild animals, plants, and their parts and products. While it has been changed multiple times, the Environment Ministry's most recent proposal was to make it more consistent with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which India is a signatory to. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) governs international trade in over 38,700 species of wild animals and plants.

The Ministry proposed establishing a Standing Committee of the State Board for Wild Life (SBWL) to make the body's functioning "more purposeful," but the report notes that several independent experts and bodies expressed concerns that such a body would be stacked with official members, exercise all SBWL powers, make decisions independent of the SBWL, and "end up being a rubber stamp for faster project clearances."

Instead, the report recommends that such a committee be formed with at least one-third of the SBWL's non-official members, at least three institutional members, and the Director of the Wildlife Institute of India or his/her nominee.

In the case of States led by the Chief Minister, a wildlife standing committee is usually a subgroup of members that reports to a larger Wildlife Board and is in charge of carrying out day-to-day matters.

While most Standing Committee reports on Bills focus on criticism of the Bill's language, this report focused on the topic of Human-Animal Conflict, which was not addressed in the proposed revisions, because it was "a complicated issue as serious as hunting" that required "legislative support."  The report suggests forming a HAC Advisory Committee, which would be led by the Chief Wild Life Warden, who would consult the committee before acting. "Such a committee with few members and in-depth technical knowledge is necessary for developing effective site-specific plans/ mitigation strategies, including recommendations on changing cropping patterns and for taking critical decisions on short notice, empowered under the law," the report read.

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