Indians Say They Possess Exotic Animals In Post-COVID Amnesty

The environment ministry offered amnesty to Indians holding undocumented exotic animals as a first step towards regulating their trade, as part of a larger effort to assess various risks of animal-to-human transmission of disease. Conservationists have welcomed the move, but say India must strengthen its laws and improve their enforcement.

ByNikhil Ghanekar|22 Mar, 2021

Delhi: Kangaroos. Lemurs. Rhinoceros iguanas. The native habitats of these wild animals lie thousands of miles away from India, in Australia, Africa and the Americas, respectively. All of these and other exotic bird, reptile, amphibian and mammalian species, including critically endangered ones, are in the possession of private individuals in India, according to Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) data accessed by IndiaSpend.