Govt denies written request to support Namibia against ivory ban

Government of India has not received any written communication from the Republic of Namibia regarding lifting of ban on ivory trade

Government of India has issued a press release to respond to the story that India has agreed to side with Namibia to lift ban on ivory trade inlieu of getting cheetahs. "The story ‘Under Cheetah deal, sought India’s support on lifting ivory ban: Namibia’ published by Indian Express on 13^th October, 2022 largely relies on speculation, hearsay and not on facts.
Though the agreement signed between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and Government of the Republic of India includes ‘wildlife conservation and sustainable biodiversity utilization’ as one of the areas of cooperation, this cannot be construed as support for lifting the ban on trade in endangered species.
The Government of India has not received any written communication from the Republic of Namibia regarding lifting of ban on ivory trade. As sovereign countries both India and Namibia will evaluate their positions on sustainable biodiversity utilization within the ambit of agreement based on the principles of mutual respect, sovereignty, equality and in the best interest of the parties."


Interestingly Government has mentioned that no written request has been received from Namibia. Govt. of India hasn't told us whether there has been verbal communication in this regard. India has always stood firm to ban the ivory trade. Whenever ivory trade has been lifted there has been a boost in elephant poaching. Practically it is very difficult to identify where the ivory has come from and hence poaching shoots up to kill elephants. If India breaks its decades long policy of standing firm on ban on ivory trade then it would be a historic reversal of position and it would case immense harm to our wild tusker population. I hope Government of India doesn't do this.