NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of the Covid-19 outbreak, India and governments around the world were on the occasion of the World Health Day on Tuesday urged by over 200 animal protection groups from across the globe to heed the coronavirus ‘tipping point’ and ban wildlife trade to reduce risk of such pandemics in future.Though the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972 prohibits hunting and trade in endemic species of wildlife, Indian animal protection groups claimed that there are several live animal markets in the country that keepn “exotic species alongside domestic animals under unhygienic and stressful conditions which have the potential for transfer of pathogens from one species to another”.“Crawford market in Mumbai, Russell Market in Bangalore, Murgi Chowk in Hyderabad and Mir Shikar Toli in Patna are just a few examples of this,” said the Humane Society International/India which wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and environment minister Prakash Javadekar The organisation urged them to ban all such large live animal markets which are involved with sale of exotic wildlife, regulate the import and export of exotic animals by bringing in the much needed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) legislation and enforce strict adherence to pet shop rules (2018) for those independent stores that sell live animals.“Currently, animal markets across the country house exotic wildlife in large numbers...A ban on large live animal markets and regulation of pet stores across the country will help to address this ticking time-bomb. We urge the government to take urgent action to ensure India does not become the site of the next pandemic,” said Sumanth Bindumadhav, campaign manager at Humane Society International (HSI)/India.The HSI on Tuesday joined more than 200 organisations, including many such NGOs from India, that wrote an open letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO) calling for it to exclude the use of wildlife in traditional Chinese medicine.These organisations including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), World Animal Protection and International Fund for Animal Welfare, underlined the suspected COVID-19 link to a wildlife market in China and demanded global ban of wildlife markets.“While a robust global response is critical in detecting, treating and reducing transmission (of COVID-19), it is equally necessary to take vital measures to prevent similar emerging infectious diseases developing into pandemics with the associated threats to human life, and social and economic well-being,” said these organisations in their letter to the WHO.The letter noted that the COVID-19 outbreak is believed to have originated at wildlife markets in China, and transmitted to humans as a result of close proximity between wildlife and people. Further research suggests that bats and pangolins may have been involved in the transmission chain of the virus to people.“But let us stress that it was the actions of people that created the environment in which this transmission was possible,” the letter said while underlining that thisis not the first time that infectious diseases have been linked to wild animals in recent years.“Between 2002 and 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), inflicted by a coronavirus which is also believed to have emerged from wildlife markets in China, resulted in more than 8,000 human cases across 29 countries, and 774 deaths,” they said in the letter.