Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar
The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition alleging violation of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) parameters in relation to the Jamnagar-based Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre and Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust, which are part of the Reliance’s Vantara initiative.
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria refused to entertain the writ petition filed by Karanartham Viramah Foundation, observing that “disturbing the settled environment, custody and air of living animals, including rescued animals after lawful import, may itself result in cruelty”.
The petition had sought a judicial direction to the Union government, Central Zoo Authority, Directorate General of Foreign Trade and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to produce the entire record of the permissions, recognitions and import/export licences granted to the rescue and rehabilitation centre and the welfare trust since 2019.
The petitioner-NGO had also sought CITES permits, internal evaluations, minutes of the Central Zoo Authority, and any correspondence exchanged with the CITES Secretariat or foreign management authorities.
The plea also urged the apex court to constitute an independent National Wildlife Trade Compliance Monitoring Committee, chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge, and comprising eminent experts in Wildlife Biology, International Trade Regulation and Environmental Law with a mandate to verify the legality and authenticity of all CITES import, export and re-export permits connected to the centre and the trust.
It said the court must direct the authorities to initiate appropriate proceedings under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, including suspension or cancellation of zoo recognition, if the inquiry revealed contraventions of law or misuse of recognition.
The petition said the Union government and the zoo authority must publish and notify a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) within three months. It had also sought a direction to ban any further imports or acquisitions of endangered live animals listed under CITES by any private zoo, trust or facility, including the centre and the trust.
The Bench, in its order pronounced early in March, said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had already looked into the various aspects of the centre and submitted a report categorically stating that there had been no violation of any domestic or international laws. The SIT report had been accepted by the apex court on September 15 last year.
Besides, the Bench found that a CITES secretarial document relied upon by the petitioner-NGO, rather than furthering its case, had recorded that there was “no evidence that the animals had been imported without the requisite CITES documentation or import permits and there is no evidence that such imports were for commercial purposes.”
“We also note that once an import has been effected under valid permission, it cannot subsequently be treated as prohibited qua the importer merely because the objections were raised thereafter,” the Supreme Court observed.
Published – March 20, 2026 03:38 am IST
