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Bengaluru: India’s exotic pet industry has boomed in recent years, but our laws have not kept pace, finds a new report that looked at pet trade, policy and regulations in India.

The report, titled ‘Safeguarding Biodiversity and Public Health, A legislative and policy analysis of exotic pet trade in India’ and authored by the Humane World for Animals India Foundation and independent wildlife trade researcher Kritika Balaji says that while India’s legislations to monitor and regulate trade in exotic species have expanded, implementation remains “fragmented”. The report notes that coordination across agencies needs to be stronger as “regulatory oversight” is a major concern – due to issues such as zoonoses (diseases that animals can transmit to humans) and more. 

India’s exotic pet industry has boomed

A staggering US $ 42.6 million: that was the estimated value of India’s exotic pet market in 2024. This number is expected to rise to US $ 75.8 million by 2030. As of February 2021, 40,000 individuals across 30 states and union territories had registered their possession of exotic pets under the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) – launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2020. 

But this pertains to only legal trade; India also has a thriving subterranean, illegal trade in non-native animals imported from other countries. The Wildlife Trust of India documented a total of 202 incidents involving wildlife crime based on media reports between April and December 2025 alone. Of these, 151 cases involved hunting, attempted hunting and illegal entry into protected areas or illegal trade of native wildlife species, and 51 involved attempts to smuggle live exotic wildlife for the pet trade mostly from Southeast Asian countries.

Wildlife trade researcher Balaji and the NGO Humane World for Animals India Foundation compiled a legal and policy analysis by examining current national laws, rules, notifications, and other policies regulating exotic wildlife trade in India, along with legislation that can and should mitigate its impacts (public health risks, invasive species threats, animal welfare concerns, and infrastructure challenges). The team also relied on published........

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