Environment and Disaster Management › Biodiversity governance

Human wildlife conflict and wildlife crime

Conflict between people and wild animals, compensation for the loss, and wildlife crime: poaching, seizures and the trade in live animals and their parts. Prelims has asked which of a set of animals, the star tortoise among them, are found naturally in India.

Foundation note: Human wildlife conflict: what the Act allows, who pays, and the crime bureau

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2013: species found naturally in India, including the star tortoise

All 3 articles shown; the 2 that changed from 1 July to 30 September 2026 are marked.Show only these

Conflict

Centre of Excellence on Human Wildlife Conflict

Prelims and Mains

The Centre of Excellence is the national hub set up by the Environment Ministry for research and policy on human wildlife conflict, paired with a National Human Wildlife Conflict Portal that pools conflict data from the States.

What changed

10 Jul 2026BriefThe Ministry asked it to take up the three hardest cases first: tigers outside reserves, leopards and elephants, with measures specific to the area and the species. PIB, 10 Jul 2026: National Workshop held to deliberate on Challenges, Innovation and Collaborative Solutions for Human-Wildlife Conflict Management (opens in a new tab)

Wildlife crime

Orangutans

Prelims and Mains

Orangutans are the only great apes in Asia, and they live wild only on Borneo and Sumatra.

They have no wild range in India, so one found here can only have been brought in, which makes such a case a trafficking question rather than a conservation one.
All three species, the Bornean, the Sumatran and the Tapanuli, are Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and in CITES Appendix I.
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is the statutory body that takes up a trafficking investigation.

What changed

16 Sep 2026
- All orangutan species are in Appendix I of CITES, whose trade is allowed only exceptionally and not for commerce.
- For a confiscated animal the Environment Ministry consults the State of origin; repatriation is at that State's cost, and otherwise the animal goes to a rescue centre.
- The 2022 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act added a schedule of CITES listed species and mirrors this procedure.
The Indian Express, 16 Sep 2026: Orangutans in Odisha: Does India have to repatriate the primates? What law says (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2023: which animal makes a tool from a stick

Turtle trafficking by rail

Prelims and Mains

Turtle trafficking by rail moves Indian softshell and flapshell turtles, Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, from the Ganga and its tributaries in Uttar Pradesh in passenger luggage, with Madhya Pradesh as a transit corridor.

Softshells go east and through Bangladesh for traditional medicine, while roofed turtles and star tortoises feed the pet trade.
The Critically Endangered Batagur of the Chambal goes to Southeast Asian pet markets.

What changed

28 Jun 2026BriefMadhya Pradesh police analysed six years of seizures before their first coordinated crackdown on rail trafficking: 654 animals recovered from trains between 2020 and 2026, 647 of them turtles. The Indian Express, 28 Jun 2026: Express Special | Inside the railway network moving India's protected turtles (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

Elephant corridors · on Elephants and other land mammals
An elephant corridor is a strip of habitat connecting two larger elephant habitats, the part of the range no reserve boundary covers, and it is where the animal and the farmer meet.
Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve · on Protected areas, tiger reserves and eco sensitive zones
Nagarjunasagar Srisailam is India's largest tiger reserve, in the Nallamala hills of the Eastern Ghats across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Project Elephant · on Elephants and other land mammals
Project Elephant, launched in 1992 by the Environment Ministry, is the centrally sponsored programme for the elephant: it funds elephant reserves, corridors, conflict management and the welfare of captive elephants, and since 2023 it has been run together with Project Tiger by a single Project Tiger and Elephant Division of the Environment Ministry.
Rhesus macaque · on Elephants and other land mammals
The rhesus macaque is the common monkey of north Indian towns, and since 2022 it is no longer protected under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.