Kerala Assembly passes bill to amend central Wildlife Protection Act

Thiruvananthapuram | The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill to amend the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 with the objective of reducing the growing incidence of human-animal conflict in the state.

The Bill, passed in the absence of Opposition members who had earlier boycotted the House over the Sabarimala gold-plating row, will now be sent to the Raj Bhavan, which will refer it to the President as it concerns a Central law, official sources said.

The Bill introduced in the Assembly last month was referred to the subject committee.

Speaking on the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2025 during a debate, Kerala Forest Minister A K Saseendran informed the Assembly that the state government had been compelled to come up with its own amendment to the Central Act, as repeated requests to the Union government for timely changes had met with no success.

He said that human-animal conflict is an issue directly affecting the lives of one-third of the state's population.

Saseendran acknowledged that there were obstacles before it, as it seeks to amend a Central law, and urged members to remain united in order to secure the President of India's assent to the Bill.

Minister said people of Kerala had staged several protests demanding timely changes in the central Wildlife Protection Act pointing out its drawbacks.

Various legislators had presented the matter in the House and the Assembly itself raised the same demand, he recalled.

"We met Union ministers multiple times with the request. Unfortunately, all such attempts had failed. In this circumstance, the state government has decided to bring out an amendment to the central law by standing within its limit for the safety of our people," the minister said.

Saseendran said the main objectives of the amendment bill are to get the authority to declare wildlife as vermin and to ensure freedom for the state government to intervene during necessary situations.

The state government should have the right to make necessary relaxations in the conditions in respective times and that is the spirit of the amendment bill, he further said.

The passing of the Bill would give a relief to the high range people of the state, the minister added.

Saseendran said the state government allocated Rs 72 crore for the distribution of compensation in the cases of wildlife attack and 75 per cent of the total amount was already spent.

The House also concluded discussion on a bill that amends the Kerala Forest Act 1961 which allows felling of sandalwood trees on private property and their sales, subject to the permission of the Forest Department.

The society was eagerly waiting for both these bills, the forest minister added.