Urbanization and Wildlife Survival in India and USA - Relevance of Adoption of Legislation

Urbanization is always considered as a symbol of growth; but everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest challenges that urbanization brings with it is deforestation, which leads to the destruction of the natural habitat of wildlife. The desire of the people to get more and more luxury, for instance, posh farmhouses, luxury cars or automated gadgets, is continuously increasing which disturbs the wildlife survival. Every nation across the globe has participated in this race of urbanization, with United States of America (USA) and India being no exception to it. As per the reports, India has emerged as not only the second most populous nation but also one of the largest developing economies for rising urban development rates in the world. However, USA is considered as a developed nation. One feature which is commonly shared with this developing and developed country is that both of them are welfare nation. The authors were left to ponder upon the question whether this welfare is one for the human beings or extended to wildlife too. Though USA falls under the ambit of urban society and India has achieved an unprecedented level of urbanization, yet a dunking rate of events in untamed wildlife is a serious legal problem for both the nations. It becomes necessary, at this point, for both countries to intervene legally for the protection and preservation of biodiversity. There are certain legislations, for instance, The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 of India and Endangered Species Act of USA, which were drafted in the nation- state with an objective of maintaining a balance between urbanization and ecology. Further, both the countries are parties to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, wherein the ulterior motive is to develop the country economically, stimulate urbanization, and sub-mix the untamed wildlife regime. After comparing the regime of both the countries, the authors have worked in a direction to figure out the reformation, which forms the need of hour to bridge the gap between the laws of developing and developed nations.