Wildlife Act technicalities sparked school raid

The technicalities in the Wildlife Protection Act,which make it mandatory for schools to obtain possession certificates from the state Chief Wildlife Warden,seem to have triggered the controversy pertaining to the recent raid conducted at Sacred Heart School Sector 26.

The technicalities in the Wildlife Protection Act,which make it mandatory for schools to obtain possession certificates from the state Chief Wildlife Warden,seem to have triggered the controversy pertaining to the recent raid conducted at Sacred Heart School Sector 26. The issue surfaced on Tuesday when a team of People For Animals (PFA) raided the Schools biology lab with a team of police officials and sealed the laboratory after recovering 31 specimens of animals. These specimens included that of frog,lizard,cobra and few other species.

As per the rules framed under the Act in 2003,all institutions including schools were directed to either surrender specimens of prohibited wild animals included in Schedule 1 of the Act or obtain possession certificate from the state Wildlife Department. Going by the records available with UT Chief Wildlife Warden Santosh Kumar,none of the city schools obtained the certificate within the deadline,when the ruling came in 2003.

Although only a particular school had to bear the brunt,the issue pertains to many schools in the country as they could not attain the possession certificates. For educational institutions,there is nothing wrong in preserving these specimens for research purposes. The anomaly lies in the interpretation of the technicality in the Wildlife Act by the schools. However,if the schools send us requests now,we will certainly recommend their case to the Central government, said Santosh Kumar.

Sharing a similar opinion,DPI (Schools) Sandeep Hans said,Since the Central government had made provisions for the schools to take permission for possessing the specimens in their labs,it is certain that their purpose of keeping these specimens is valid. Even if the schools failed to comply with the technical clause,keeping in view the interests of students,they may be given a chance to apply for the certificates once again.

The police,however,have not registered any case. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Naunihal Singh said,The PFA representatives had given us a complaint citing infringement of the Wildlife Protection Act by the school. So,on the basis of their complaint,we deputed a team of police officials to accompany the PFA representatives to look into the matter.

Santosh Kumar,on the other hand,said,We have returned the report to the police since they are equally empowered to pursue the case.

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