Perhaps the most important reason snake charming is declining in India is that it is no longer legal following changes to the Wildlife Protection Act. The law was originally passed in 1972, and aimed at preventing the export of snakeskins, introducing a seven-year prison term for owning or selling snakes. Beginning in the late 1990s, however, the law was also applied to the snake charmers. As a result, the charmers were forced to move their performances to less-travelled areas such as small villages or face legal actions. The trade is hardly profitable anymore, and many practitioners must supplement their income by alternative jobs, like working as day labourers. Children of snake charmers increasingly decide to leave the profession to pursue higher-paying work, and many fathers do not try to make them reconsider.