Legal system fails to keep pace with India’s growing exotic pet industry

This is Part 4 of a series on exotic pet trade. The series looks at the health impacts, legal challenges and the ecological consequences of keeping exotic wild animals as pets. Part 1 explores how the trade enables zoonoses; Part 2 observes how India is emerging as a link in the global primate trade; and Part 3 raises the animal welfare and ecological concerns of abandoned or escaped pets.

Jose Louies has witnessed India’s wildlife pet trade scene change dramatically over the last decade and a half. The CEO of the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), he calls himself an “old hand in the business”, having relentlessly tracked the trade over the last two decades.

In the early years of the millennium, Louies recalls, colourful birds and large parrots such as sulphur-crested cockatoos and macaws were mainly seen in circuses. “Even zoos had very few exotic animals,” he says. Some of the ultra-rich may have kept a parrot or two in their farmhouses, while pet markets at Jama Masjid, Crawford Market in Mumbai and markets in Kolkata had budgerigars, cockatoos and other small exotic birds. “The markets were quite discreet and there were hardly any exotic mammals,” Louies says.

Native species such as Alexandrine parakeets and Indian hill myna were seen in illegal markets, while goldfish were mostly preferred as pets. Forest departments and organisations such as PETA and People for Animals (PFA) were also quite active in monitoring or cracking down on illegal trade, he recalls.

Louies observed the market evolve significantly around 2010, with the internet playing a major role and social media becoming particularly important in encouraging wildlife trade.

Algorithms amplify trade

A 2021 study illustrates the scale of this online pet trade in India. Researchers monitored multiple WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram and Instagram groups, as well as 20 websites over two years, documenting 84 exotic reptile species being traded. They found that social media provided a relatively private trading environment, with sellers using closed groups and, on Instagram, displaying animals through photographs without openly listing prices.

The India director of Humane World for Animals, Sumanth Bindumadhav, also sees social media, along with the increasing popularity of petting zoos and pet cafes, as major drivers of demand. “Social media makes it seem normal to have these animals at home. The algorithms amplify it: Videos that receive a lot of engagement and views are shown to more people, which can lead to more people wanting these animals. The interactions facilitated at petting zoos can also create demand,” he says.

Pop culture too has influenced demand for particular species. Louies points to the Harry Potter series of books and movies as one example of how popular culture widened the imagination of children and young adults. “I came across a demand from a young man who wanted to gift an owl to his girlfriend who liked Harry Potter,” he says.

A 2010 TRAFFIC report documents an uptick in demand for owls as pets influenced by popular movies. Owls are legally protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and most species are included in Appendix I or Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The report’s author, ornithologist Abrar Ahmed, says the investigation was prompted in part by a friend’s request for a live white owl resembling the Harry Potter character, Hedwig, for her son’s 10th birthday party themed around the series. The report indicates that Hedwig contributed to a growth in demand for owls in India, but not necessarily for the snowy owl, the Hedwig species. Similar influences have been seen with clownfish after Finding Nemo and huskies inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia series.

Louies attributes the broader growth of the market to a combination of rising disposable incomes and the information available through social media on keeping exotic animals as pets. As the range of animals sought by buyers has expanded, so too has interest in less conventional, and often legally protected, species. “There has also been increasing demand for unusual snakes. For example, the Indonesian pit viper became highly sought after, I believe, when films such as Zootopia popularised them,” he says.

Trade surged despite the pandemic lessons

Globally, wildlife trafficking is one of the largest illicit transnational activities in the world, alongside drug, human and illegal arms trafficking.

A 2026 Humane World for Animals (HWA) report cites market research that puts the value of India’s exotic-pet market at approximately $42.6 million in 2024, with industry estimates projecting it to come close to double of that by 2030. Reptiles and birds dominate the market, alongside growing demand for mammals and invertebrates, the report says.

The trade extends beyond the animals themselves, with a growing ecosystem of products and services supporting their ownership, from specialised food, cages and enclosures to transport and veterinary care. Pet trade events such as the India International Pet Trade Fair also promote products for exotic-pet owners, including custom enclosures and veterinary-care products.

“There is also a huge market for live animal feeds such as shrimps, mealworms, superworms and cockroaches, apart from specialised food for exotic birds such as African grey parrots. You can have a small room and make a good amount of money by farming mealworms. All you need is a few potatoes and leftover food from your kitchen, because that is what the larvae feed on,” Louies shares.

One might have expected COVID-19, a zoonotic disease that disrupted human health and economic activity across the world, to make people more apprehensive about closer contact with wild animals and reduce demand for exotic pets. Instead, experts observed a surge in demand during and after the pandemic.

Uttara Mendiratta, a conservation researcher working on illegal wildlife hunting and trade who is analysing data on the trend, says there were many seizures reported along the Indo-Myanmar border around 2021. “Later, the pattern shifted and airports seem to have become much more important points of entry, maybe to keep mortality low compared to long overland journeys from countries such as Thailand,” she says. “So the route appears to be changing, but the overall trend has continued from around 2021-22.”

A global study published in 2022 surveyed 162 people working on the exotic-pet trade, including traders, researchers, NGOs and enforcement agencies. It found that while the legal trade initially declined because of lockdowns and transport restrictions, demand and online trade increased as the pandemic progressed.

An India-specific media investigation, which gathered information from customs, forest officials, police, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, reported a surge in wildlife trafficking through India’s Northeast after the first COVID-19 lockdown. The animals included exotic species entering from Myanmar, with officials and conservationists linking the activity to demand for exotic animal companions and regulatory loopholes.

A new law to regulate

The pandemic period also coincided with a development that revealed the scale of exotic-pet ownership in India. In 2020, the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme, a one-time amnesty initiative introduced by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), allowed owners of non-native exotic pets, including those acquired without documents or illegally, to declare their animals to the government without facing prosecution or investigation into their source.

More than 40,000 people across 30 states and union territories declared their exotic pets, according to the Humane World for Animals report. The figure offers a glimpse of the scale of ownership, although the report cautions that it could represent only a fraction of the actual number of exotic pets in the country.

A more significant step towards regulating the trade came with the 2022 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The amendment created Schedule IV for species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices I, II and III. Section 49M requires the registration of possession, transfer and birth, as well as reporting of death, of living scheduled animal species listed in the CITES Appendices and included in Schedule IV.

Louies says the amendment addressed a long-standing concern among Indian authorities by giving forest departments a legal basis to act on offences involving non-native animals. “Earlier, enforcement was largely focused on the border. Once an animal entered India, there were fewer avenues for action. Now there are requirements relating to licences, registration and documentation for these animals,” he says.

Environment lawyer and co-author of the HWA report Shubhra Sotie considers the amendment essential, but also peculiar. “The entire Act is prohibitory in nature and now it is amended to include something that’s regulatory,” she says. While trade in native wildlife is prohibited under the Act, “the pet trade in exotic, non-native animals is legal but regulated,” she adds.

Sotie points to another challenge: CITES can change the status of species by uplisting, downlisting, adding or removing them from its Appendices. India’s Act, however, does not automatically reflect these changes. “A full amendment, which is a parliamentary process, needs to be undertaken for any change in its status to come into effect,” she explains.

Multiple laws but poor implementation

India’s exotic-pet trade is governed by multiple laws, including the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, Customs Act, Livestock Importation Act, Biological Diversity Act, Wild Life (Protection) Act, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Living Animal Species (Reporting and Registration) Rules, 2024. Yet the HWA report identifies major gaps in implementation.

There are no mandatory post-import health standards, while biosecurity measures remain weak once animals leave ports. Invasive-species provisions are also largely unoperationalised, with no single legally binding national list of prohibited or high-risk species. Post-seizure management lacks standardised repatriation protocols, funding, lifetime-care frameworks and euthanasia guidelines.

A 2025 Mumbai customs seizure illustrates some of these challenges. A passenger arriving from Bangkok was found carrying live and dead exotic species, including CITES-listed iguanas, tarantulas and tortoises, as well as non-CITES-listed species such as a sugar glider and tarantulas. The passenger was arrested under the Customs Act and the animals seized. “There is a lot of confusion around repatriation and deportation of seized animals. In cases such as these, we have no way of knowing the fate of the animals that are deported,” says advocate and wildlife conservationist Pawan Sharma of RAWW, who was part of the operation.

The HWA report also identifies gaps in animal-welfare regulation. Current rules provide no species-specific husbandry standards or restrictions on private ownership of dangerous or captivity-inappropriate species, including great apes. Petting zoos and aviaries occupy regulatory grey areas, while social-media and messaging platforms facilitate largely unregulated trade, allowing transactions to bypass seller verification, health screening, import documentation and registration requirements.

“We have one too many laws but implementation is where we are lacking,” Sotie says. Sharma adds that the involvement of multiple departments makes coordination and implementation a complex process.

Information gaps compound the problem. Despite more than 40,000 people declaring non-native exotic pets under the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme, the experts point to limited follow-up action.

Louies identifies several practical problems with implementation. The online registration system does not always work, he says, meaning applicants may submit forms without receiving the required certificate. Identification of individual animals is another challenge. “If you have two grey parrots, for example, how do you establish which individual animal is the one that was registered?” he asks.

Bindumadhav points to another unresolved issue: non-native species that are not listed under CITES. “It is unclear what legislation governs them, if anything. Whether keeping a corn snake or a ball python at home is legal or illegal is not something that most forest officers or law enforcement agencies can immediately answer,” he says.

Experts also point to a gap during the registration process: the law does not prohibit people from breeding or trading animals before registration is completed, which they say can be exploited by buying animals and subsequently declaring them online.

Processing applications is itself a challenge. From her experience training forest officials in Karnataka, Sotie found it difficult to untangle the legal provisions. “As a lawyer, I could read the provisions, interpret them and put them together into a step-by-step process. There is no guidance available for forest departments to implement the law which is difficult to comprehend,” she says.

The HWA report proposes reforms spanning regulation, institutional capacity, biosecurity, public awareness, digital trade and research.

Louies cautions against viewing the exotic-pet trade purely as a wildlife issue. “There is a larger wildlife crime dimension, such as the wide networks, large amounts of money and potentially tax evasion and connections with other forms of illegal trade, that we should not ignore.”

Banner image: A pet African grey parrot in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu. By law, pet owners must register possession, transfer, birth and death of species listed in the Wild Life (Protection) Act. Representative image by Yercaud-elango via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).