Buceros Vol. 7, No. 3 (2002) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We gratefully acknowledge the critical comments and suggestions of many persons for the improvement of the present issue dealing with birds in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Our thanks are due to Mr. Harjeet Singh, Senior Advisor, MoEF, GOI and Dr. Bandyopadhyay, Director, MoEF, GOI for their support. Our special thanks are due to Dr. M. K. Ranjitsinh, Member of Indian Board for Wildlife, Mr. Debi Goenka, Honorary Treasurer, BNHS, Mr. Neeraj Sekhar, Regional Deputy Director (Wildlife Preservation) & Assistant Management Authority-CITES, Govt. of India, Mr. Mahendra Vyas, Environment Lawyer and Mr. B. C. Chaudhury, Senior Scientist, WII, Dehradun for their views and critical comments on the manuscript. We would like to thank Mr. Rajat Bhargav, IBCN Coordinator, Important Bird Areas programme, BNHS for providing trade names of bird species in India. 1 Buceros Vol. 7, No. 3 (2002) A BNHS REVIEW OF THE AVIFAUNAL LIST OF THE WILDLIFE (PROTECTION) ACT, 1972 India has a centuries’ long tradition in the The WPA, 1972 is very comprehensive in its scope, conservation of nature. Many animals and plants are and provides clear-cut definitions and guidelines sacred to Indians, and many other species are unharmed regarding various aspects of the Act, such as listing the or afforded protection due to various other reasons. The responsibilities and duties of those implementing the Act; birth and spread of Buddhism and Jainism in India further procedures to be followed in the appointment of wildlife strengthened the Indian compassion for all forms of life. officers and creation of the various types of protected The earliest codified law to protect nature can be traced areas; rules regarding the issue of firearm licenses; matters to the third century BC, when Emperor Ashoka enacted a regarding the trade in wildlife; and punishments to be law towards the preservation of wildlife and the meted out under the Act. environment. He declared that forests must not be burnt, Regarding the flora and fauna listed in the Act, and listed a wide variety of animals that were not to be these are grouped into six categories, termed Schedules killed, which interestingly included bats, queen ants and of the Act. Various animals are grouped under Schedules boneless fish (quoted by Raj Panjwani in The Wildlife I to V, and Schedule VI, which lists endangered plants. (Protection) Act, 1972 – 4th Edn). Thus, it may be said that Schedule V species are classed as vermin, and can be the ethics and ethos of conservation was inherent in killed if declared so, and among birds, only the House Indian culture. Crow Corvus splendens finds a place in this Schedule In modern India, the protection of wildlife through (Table 3). With regard to the other bird species listed enactment started in 1873 through the Madras Act to under the Act, they have been grouped under Schedule I prevent the indiscriminate destruction of wild elephants and Schedule IV (Table 1 & 2). during British rule. This was followed by the promulgation However, there are certain lacunae or deficiencies of the Wild Birds Protection Act in 1887, primarily intended which require clarification or rectification. Some of these to put a check on the hunting of game birds during the are: breeding season in specified areas of the former British 1) Does the system of giving the group name (e.g. India. Subsequent to this came the Wild Birds and Animals avocet and stilts) followed by family name (e.g., (Protection) Act, 1912, to extend the scope of the Recurvirostridae) suggest that only these groups protection to other wildlife (besides birds) and made of the family come under the Schedule? Does it applicable throughout British India. mean for example that, the Ibisbill (which also comes In the post Independence scenario, the landmark in under the same family) does not come under the nature conservation was the enactment of The Indian same family) Schedule? Similar is the case of family Wildlife (Protection) Act by the Government of India in Rallidae (which include coots and rails), without 1972. This was the first comprehensive legislation for listing the crakes and moorhens. If the mention of control and management of wildlife including their habitats. the family name is actually intended to mean all The framework of this Act, termed as the Wildlife species under it, then only the family name only (Protection) Act, 1972 [WL (P) A] was adopted from the need be given, otherwise, all the groups of a family Bombay Wild Birds and Animals (Protection) Act of 1950, must find a place in the list. For the same reasons framed by the late ornithologist Humayun Abdulali of the one wonders whether warblers, wagtails, cuckoo- Bombay Natural History Society. The WPA was first shrikes, flycatcher-shrikes and woodshrikes figure brought out as a book in 1990, and this was followed by in the Schedule? the second, third and fourth editions in 1992, 1994 and 2) Shrikes (Lanidae), Swifts (Apodidae) and Bee-eaters 1997 respectively, with amendments to the Act. In an effort (Meropidae) do not find a place in the lists. Does to promote its effective implementation, the Act is brought this mean that the species can be killed? Similarly, out as a priced publication and is available with many as per the list, only the Brown-headed Gull Larus offices and libraries. brunnicephalus comes under the Schedule. Does 2 Buceros Vol. 7, No. 3 (2002) this mean that the other gulls are not protected? of the Act, deserves Schedule I status. 3) Why is the Comb duck Sarkidiornis melanotos The ambiguities and drawbacks have made it placed separately, and not under its family Anatidae, possible for poachers or wildlife traders to escape, which is also in the list. or to get off with lighter sentences. Due to these To fill up these gaps we have given the list of reasons, we bring out this issue of Buceros in an protected bird species that actually come under the effort to update and fill in the existing lacunae in listed families. the avifaunal list of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 4) Does the Blue Rock Pigeon Columba livia deserve 1972. Some of the changes are: a place in the Act as wild, semi-wild and ‘domestic’ 1. We give the complete list of species of groups of populations of the species are present throughout families that are mentioned in the Act. the country?. 2. We have added the ‘missing’ groups (and the 5) The scientific names of many species have species under them) for families listed in the Act. undergone change, and these changes need to be 3. We have also added a list of families (and species incorporated in the future reviews of the Act. For under them) that are not listed in the Act (Appendix example, the scientific name of the Great Indian I). Bustard Choriotis nigriceps is now Ardeotis 4. We have included the list of bird species that have nigriceps. been identified by the BirdLife International as 6) Recent taxonomic changes (e.g. Ciconia ciconia threatened, endangered, critically endangered, boyciana is now treated as a distinct species vulnerable and near threatened, so that, while Oriental White stork C. boyciana) are also to be reviewing the Act, more attention will be given by included in the future amendments. the authorities to include them under the respective 7) The status of many species has changed in the Schedules of the Act. recent past based on BirdLife International’s criteria. 5. We have given the local trade names for birds These changes are to be included in the Act involved in the bird trade. This will be a boost for accordingly, eg. the Spot-billed Pelican Pelecanus enforcement authorities, as the trade names tend philippensis, currently placed under Schedule IV to differ from the English or local names. Please note that ours is not a legal document and certainly not a substitute to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. 3 Buceros Vol. 7, No. 3 (2002) Table1. The list below is reproduced from the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (as amended upto 1993) WILDLIFE (PROTECTION) ACT, 1972. Schedule-I PART III: BIRDS Andaman teal (Anas gibberifrons albogularis) Assam bamboo partridge (Bambusicola fytchii) Bazas (Aviceda jerdoni and Aviceda leuphotes) Bengal florican (Eupodotis bengalensis) Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) Blood pheasants (Ithaginis cruentus tibetanus, I.c.kuseri) Cheer pheasant (Catreus wallichi) Eastern white stork (Ciconia ciconia boyciana) Forest spotted owlet (Athene blewitti) Frogmouths (Genus Batrachostomus) Great Indian bustard (Choriotis nigriceps) Great Indian hornbill (Buceros bicornis) Hawks (fam. Accipitridae) Hooded crane (Grus monacha) Hornbills (Ptiloaernus tickelli austeni, Aceros nipalensis, Rhyticeros undulatus ticehursti) Houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata) Hume’s bar-backed pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae) Indian pied hornbill (Anthracoceros malabaricus) Jerdon’s courser (Cursorius bitorquatus) Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) Large falcons (Falco peregrinus, F. biarmicus, F. chicquera) Large whistling teal (Dendrocygna bicolor) Lesser florican (Sypheotides indica) Monal pheasants (Lophophorus impejanus, L. sclateri) Mountain quail (Ophrysia superciliosa) Narcondam hornbill (Rhyticeros (undulatus) narcondami) Nicobar megapode (Megapodius freycinet) Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica pelewensis) Osprey or Fish-eating eagle (Pandion haliaetus) Peacock pheasants (Polyplectron bicalcaratum) Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) Pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea) Sclater’s monal (Lophophorus sclateri) Siberian white crane (Grus leucogeranus) Tibetan snow cock (Tetraogallus tibetanus) Tragopan pheasants (Tragopan melanocephalus, T. blythii, T. satyra, T. temnminckii) White-bellied sea eagle (Haliaetus leucogaster) White-eared pheasant (Crossoptilon crossoptilon) White spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) White-winged wood duck (Cairina scutulata) 4 Buceros Vol. 7, No. 3 (2002) Table 2. The list below is reproduced from the wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended upto 1993) WILDLIFE (PROTECTION) ACT, 1972. Schedule-IV 1. Avadavat (Estrildinae) 2. Avocet (Recurvirostridae) 3. Babblers (Timaliinae) 4. Barbets (Capitonidae) 5.