Kerala has become the first State in the country to pass a bill amending the Central Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The Wildlife Protection (Kerala Amendment) Act, 2025, which aims to address the rising incidents of human-animal conflicts in the State, was passed by the Kerala Assembly on October 8. The bill will be sent to the President of India and will become law only once it receives the President of India's assent.
In a post on his official page on X, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the passing of the bill marked a major step towards ensuring justice for communities that live at the edge of forests.
"These reforms reaffirm Kerala’s commitment to safeguarding both human life and wildlife, fostering harmony between people and nature", the post stated.
Human-animal conflict has long been an issue of grave concern in the State. Wild boars often roam into human settlements, destroying crops, and encounters with elephants have proven deadly. The Kerala High Court has been seized of the issue as part of a suo motu case on animal welfare.
The Wildlife Protection Amendment Bill passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly empowers the Chief Wildlife Warden to order the shooting or tranquilisation of wild animals that attack humans or stray into human settlements.
"Provided also that where such a wild animal has attacked any person and caused or inflicted severe injuries to him, or such animal is found in a public place where people are usually gathered for various purposes or in a residential area, the Chief Wildlife Warden may, upon a report from the District Collector or a Chief Conservator of Forests, without delay, by order in writing and stating the reasons therefore, permit any person to kill, tranquilise, capture or translocate such animal or cause such animal to be killed, tranquilised, captured or translocated," the bill reads.
It also empowers the Chief Wildlife Warden to take steps to control the population of any wild animal by any method other than killing.
The bill further empowers the State government to declare any wild animal listed under Schedule II (animals with a high degree of protection, including monitor lizards, certain kinds of civets, cobra snakes, russel's vipers, rat snakes, mongooses etc.) of the Central Act as vermin for limited periods.