Sections 17A to 17H: Picking, Cultivating, Dealing and Stock

In one line

Chapter IIIA in full: what may not be picked, who may get a permit, who must be licensed, what stock must be declared, and what the Government takes.

In exam wording: Chapter IIIA of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 provides that no person shall wilfully pick, uproot, damage, destroy, acquire or collect any specified plant from any forest land and any area specified by notification by the Central Government, or possess, sell, offer for sale, transfer by way of gift or otherwise, or transport any specified plant whether alive or dead, or part or derivative thereof, with a proviso saving a member of a Scheduled Tribe, subject to Chapter IV, picking, collecting or possessing in the district he resides any specified plant or part or derivative for his bona fide personal use; that the Chief Wild Life Warden may, with the previous permission of the State Government, grant a permit for education, scientific research, collection, preservation and display in a herbarium of any scientific institution, or propagation by a person or institution approved by the Central Government; that cultivation of and dealing in specified plants require a licence; that stock must be declared; that a licensee may not hold undeclared or unlawfully acquired material; that purchase must be from a licensed dealer; and that every specified plant in respect of which an offence has been committed is the property of the State Government, or of the Central Government where it was collected from a sanctuary or National Park declared by the Central Government.

Section 17A: the prohibition

Save as otherwise provided in this Chapter, no person shall:

(a) wilfully pick, uproot, damage, destroy, acquire or collect any specified plant from any forest land and any area specified, by notification, by the Central Government;

(b) possess, sell, offer for sale, or transfer by way of gift or otherwise, or transport any specified plant, whether alive or dead, or part or derivative thereof.

Two limbs with different reach. Clause (a) is limited to forest land and to notified areas. Clause (b) is not limited by place at all: possession, sale and transport are prohibited wherever they occur. A student who says the whole section is confined to forest land is wrong.

The word "wilfully" governs clause (a) only.

The proviso. Nothing in the section shall prevent a member of a Scheduled Tribe, subject to the provisions of Chapter IV, from picking, collecting or possessing in the district he resides any specified plant or part or derivative for his bona fide personal use. Three limits: the district of residence, personal use, and Chapter IV, which is the chapter on protected areas, so the saving does not authorise collection inside a sanctuary or National Park contrary to that chapter.