Private keeping of wild animals outlawed; activists ask provinces to follow suit

Islamabad:Influential and affluent Pakistanis keep wild animals as pets as a status symbol but now, private ownership of beasts in Islamabad has been declared a crime.

The development comes through a bill passed by parliament. Under the new law, Islamabad Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management Act, 2023, no one is allowed to keep wild animals in captivity, injure, hunt, kill, or capture them, and use hawks for hunting or dogs for coursing wild animals.

The people, who are in possession of wild animals with or without permission, will surrender them to the Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management Board in the next three months and if they don't do so, the board will seize those animals. The private keeping of wild animals will be punishable with one-year imprisonment at maximum, or with a fine.

The board will permit the killing and capturing of wild animals, for "public safety or the protection of nature."

Authorities are already rehabilitating the poached, maltreated, malnourished, and injured wild animals at an erstwhile zoo in Islamabad with the help of volunteers before releasing them into their natural habitats in the country and abroad.

Currently, six black bears and a Bengal Tiger seized by the public sector Islamabad Wildlife Management Board are being cared for at the "animal rescue and rehabilitation centre" established at the erstwhile Marghazar Zoo after its closure in 2020 on the high court's orders over outrageous conditions.

The new legislation has also placed restrictions on the import and export of wild animals and said no breeding, rescue, and rehabilitation facility for wild animals could be established in the private sector without obtaining a licence from the Board.

Under the law, whose jurisdiction is limited to Islamabad Capital Territory, the federal government, in order to ensure the undisturbed breeding of wild animals, could declare any area to be a wildlife sanctuary, which will be closed to the public. Only people's entry will be allowed only to reduce fire hazards, epidemic or insect attacks, or other natural calamities. The new legislation also promises the promotion of biodiversity including flora and fauna in the areas managed by the board and said the federal government could declare and demarcate any area a national park, where access to roads, construction of rest houses, hotels, and other buildings along with amenities for the public will require the board's approval.

It also declares that an area falling within 100 meters outside the boundary of a national park or a wildlife sanctuary would be considered a protected area buffer zone provided it is a state land or acquired for the purpose.

"Developments in the buffer zones including structures, roads, buildings, or any other infrastructure or facility will be designed and operated in such a manner that the disturbance to wildlife in the national park is minimised. No development shall take place in a buffer zone unless a no-objection certificate is taken from the Board prior to the start of development," read the Act.

Animal rights advocates hail the legislation saying it will protect the right of wild animals to live in their natural habitats outside the control of humans for their own development. They urged provinces to follow in the footsteps of the centre as wildlife protection is no more a federal subject due to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which de-centralised powers.

Former climate change minister Sherry Rehman, who tabled the bill in parliament, said it was a landmark law for the protection of animal rights. "Locally and internationally, it is now an accepted fact that the practice of holding wild animals captive is cruel and atrocious in nature, therefore the Act strictly prohibits captivity of wild animals in zoos, homes, or any other establishment with the exception of rescue, rehabilitation centres; and breeding facilities maintained by the public sector. Only for ICT. [I] Hope provinces follow suit," she wrote on her X (formerly Twitter) handle.