The Sarus case

Subject: Environment

Section: Environmental Law

Under Section 39 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, no person is allowed to acquire or keep in his possession, custody or control any wildlife which is state property. If anyone does so—for example, to treat an injured bird as in the present case — she must report it to the nearest police station or the authorized officer within forty-eight hours of obtaining such possession.
Further,underSection57ofthe Act, if a person is found in possession, custody or control of any wildlife, the burden of proof for establishing that the possession, custody or control is not illegal is on the person.
Clearly, WLPA does not allow anyone to take home an injured wild bird and keep it for months without written permission from the state’s chief wildlife warden. But it gets a little complicated when the bird in question is a Sarus crane and the caregiver is a farmer in Uttar Pradesh.