Sections 61 to 62B: The Schedules, Vermin and Invasive Alien Species

In one line

How a species moves between Schedules, what declaring an animal vermin does, and the power over invasive alien species added in 2022.

In exam wording: section 61 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 empowers the Central Government, if it is of opinion that it is expedient so to do, by notification to amend any Schedule or add or delete any entry to or from any Schedule, or transfer any entry from one Part of a Schedule to another Part of the same Schedule or from one Schedule to another, whereupon the relevant Schedule is deemed to be altered accordingly, every such alteration being without prejudice to anything done or omitted to be done before it, with a proviso that an alteration made by a State Government with the previous consent of the Central Government shall prevail in that State and a further proviso preserving the Central Government's power to modify or cancel it at any time.

Continued: section 62 empowers the Central Government by notification to declare any wild animal specified in Schedule II to be vermin for any area and for such period as may be specified, and so long as the notification is in force such animal shall be deemed not to be included in Schedule II for that area and period; section 62A empowers the Central Government by notification to regulate or prohibit the import, trade, possession or proliferation of invasive alien species which pose a threat to the wild life or habitat in India, and to authorise the Director or another officer to seize and dispose of, including through destruction, the species so notified; and section 62B empowers it, notwithstanding any other provision, to call for information or a report from a State Government or any other agency or body, or to issue any direction to them, for the effective implementation of the Act.

Section 61: the Schedules are not fixed

What may be done. Amend a Schedule; add an entry; delete an entry; transfer an entry from one Part of a Schedule to another Part of the same Schedule, or from one Schedule to another.

By whom. The Central Government, by notification, if it is of opinion that it is expedient so to do.

The effect. On the issue of the notification the relevant Schedule is deemed to be altered accordingly, and every alteration is without prejudice to anything done or omitted to be done before it. So a prosecution for an act done while the species was listed is not defeated by a later deletion.

The State's role. An alteration made by a State Government with the previous consent of the Central Government prevails in that State; and the Central Government may modify or cancel it at any time.