Mumbai: As the Centre invites suggestions and objections to its draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Control and Supervision of Experiment, Breeding and Trading of Laboratory Animals) Rules, 2026, former Union minister Maneka Gandhi has alleged that the proposed regulations favour companies conducting animal experiments, raising concerns over accountability, animal sourcing and laboratory standards.
The draft, issued by the Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA) under the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, proposes replacing the existing rules of 1968 and 1998. The deadline for submitting objections and suggestions is November 5.
Maneka Gandhi raises three concerns
Speaking exclusively to The Free Press Journal, Gandhi, an animal-rights activist instrumental in the establishment of the committee, flagged three major concerns, including inadequate accountability for experiments, the sourcing of animals from streets and other locations, and provisions that she said did not adequately ensure experiments would be conducted in properly equipped laboratories.
“The draft was not touched for the last 50 years, and whenever raids were conducted on these labs, they were always found to be in a very bad shape, with absolutely no dignity to the animals,” Gandhi said.
She alleged that the proposed rules could encourage companies, including cosmetic brands, to outsource animal testing to India. India has already prohibited animal testing for cosmetics and restricted the use of animals for educational purposes in schools, measures Gandhi said had helped limit cruelty.
“If we conduct experiments under the tree, even that will be valid because no one will ask about where they were conducted,” she said, questioning the proposed oversight of experiment locations.
Draft introduces experiment severity categories
The draft introduces a severity-based classification of experiments into four categories: mild, moderate, severe and non-recovery. Under the proposed framework, institutional animal ethics committees would be able to approve mild and moderate experiments, reducing the number of cases requiring prior approval from the central CCSEA. The draft also incorporates the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement, which seek to promote alternatives to animal testing, minimise the number of animals used and reduce their pain and distress.
However, animal-welfare groups have questioned whether the proposed changes would weaken independent oversight.
PETA India warns of weakened safeguards
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has urged the government to withdraw the draft, warning that exceptions could permit the capture of certain protected wild animals for experiments and allow the use of community dogs and stray cats under specified circumstances.
The organisation has also raised concerns over experiments involving severe suffering, including inescapable electric shocks, prolonged isolation, tumour induction and toxicity tests in which death is an endpoint. It said the draft could weaken safeguards relating to anaesthesia, rehabilitation and euthanasia, while advance notice for inspections could compromise the detection of violations.
“India’s forests must not become a source of animals for laboratories, and our community dogs and cats must never be treated as disposable experimental subjects,” said Dr Anjana Aggarwal, PETA India’s scientist and research policy adviser.
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She urged the government to prioritise alternatives such as organs-on-chips, laboratory-grown human tissues and computer modelling, rather than create new avenues for animal experimentation.
Activists call for public objections
A former member of the committee also questioned its composition, alleging that its members were not from the Indian Forest Service. The former member claimed that the committee had received more than 50,000 objections from animal-welfare associations across the country.
The animal-welfare activists have called upon people to register their objections at the CCSEA's official email ID.
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