Conservation, pollution, EIA

Current affairs on this topic 24

• Captive-bred Great Indian Bustards to be released into the wild for the first time 3 October 2026

  About 140 bustards survive in the wild. Can birds raised in captivity cope with power lines and predators?

• Centre resumes appraising pending post facto green clearances after Supreme Court ruling 3 October 2026

  Can a project that broke the law be cleared afterwards? The Centre reopens pending cases but bars new ones.

• Delhi's September AQI hits a five-year low even as PM2.5 and PM10 levels rose 2 October 2026

  How can the air quality index improve while the main pollutants get worse? The answer is in how the index is built.

• Supreme Court rules out a total firecracker ban, open to next-generation green crackers 1 October 2026

  Neither a total ban nor round-the-clock bursting: where will the court draw the line this Deepavali?

• Centre notifies CAFE-III fuel-efficiency norms for cars from April 2027 1 October 2026

  Each electric car will count as three in a carmaker's fleet average. Will that speed up India's shift away from petrol?

• Op-ed: To protect tigers, track wildlife crime beyond reserve boundaries 30 September 2026

  Tigers leave reserves every night, and so do the traders who hunt them. Is protection still fenced in?

• UN adopts a declaration that rising seas will not erase island states 28 September 2026

  If the sea swallows a country's land, does the country, and its ocean zone, disappear too?

• Vedanta seeks a return to Niyamgiri, 13 years after gram sabhas said no 27 September 2026

  Can a mine that tribal gram sabhas rejected in 2013 be reopened, and who gets to decide?

• Expert panel backs green clearance for the Subansiri Upper hydro project 26 September 2026

  Can Arunachal's big dams be built without paying too high a price in forests?

• Karnataka's legislature asks the Centre to shrink the Western Ghats eco-sensitive area 23 September 2026

  Conservation zone or livelihood threat? A decade-old fight returns to the Assembly.

• Green clearances for ports now valid for 20 years 23 September 2026

  Faster port building, or weaker oversight of coasts?

• At NGT's climate conference, Modi says developing nations are wrongly blamed for emissions 20 September 2026

  India's per capita emissions are under half the world average. Does that settle who must cut first?

• Stiff 'red entry' rules in land records to curb farm fires 19 September 2026

  A mark on your land record for burning stubble. Will it work?

• India's first payments to farmers for soil carbon 18 September 2026

  Farmers in Punjab and Haryana paid for carbon stored in their soil.

• Op-ed: E20 petrol's mileage loss may have cost consumers ₹88,234 crore in three years 17 September 2026

  Blending ethanol was meant to save money, crude and carbon. What if lower mileage eats into all three?

• Environment Minister opens a soft release centre for Great Indian Bustards in Kutch 14 September 2026

  Kutch's bustards lay infertile eggs. Can egg swaps, fenced grassland and buried power lines save them?

• Study finds rapid Himalayan erosion releases CO2 through pyrite oxidation 13 September 2026

  Mountains are said to pull carbon out of the air as rocks weather. In the upper Indus, the balance runs the other way.

• Indonesia prepares to take back five baby orangutans rescued in Odisha's Balasore 12 September 2026

  How did five critically endangered great apes from Southeast Asia end up in a forest in Odisha?

• Open waste burning in Indian cities triples in winter, finds WRI India study 10 September 2026

  It adds under 1% of a city's PM2.5, yet poor neighbourhoods breathe its smoke. Why does winter make it worse?

• Editorial: The push to dilute gram sabha consent for forest diversion 9 September 2026

  Should a dam wait for every affected village to agree, or is the consent of three in four villages enough?

• Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026: Lucknow tops million-plus cities on clean air action 8 September 2026

  Lucknow tops a national clean air ranking, yet its air is over twice the legal limit. How can both be true?

• UK recognises India's carbon credit trading scheme under its carbon border tax 8 September 2026

  Can a carbon market at home cut the border tax that Indian steel and aluminium will pay in Britain?

• Tribal Affairs Ministry says Forest Rights Act has no provision for gram sabha consent 7 September 2026

  If the forest rights law never asked for gram sabha consent, why are hydro projects waiting years for it?

• UNEP says 1.5°C will be crossed and maps an 'overshoot, peak and decline' path 3 September 2026

  If 1.5°C can no longer be held, can the world go above it and still come back down?

Background from the reference shelf

• Madhav Gadgil Panel (WGEEP)
• Kasturirangan Working Group

Previous-year questions 21

1. 2026 · GS3 · 15 marks Explain the key challenges for India's energy security. What measures do you suggest for ensuring energy security along with economic growth and sustainability?
2. 2026 · GS3 · 10 marks Discuss how the contradiction between 'rapid infrastructure development' and 'disaster-risk reduction' in ecologically-sensitive areas of India can be managed, with suitable examples.
3. 2025 · GS3 · 10 marks How can India achieve energy independence through clean technology by 2047? How can biotechnology play a crucial role in this endeavour?
4. 2025 · GS3 · 15 marks Mineral resources are fundamental to the country's economy and these are exploited by mining. Why is mining considered an environmental hazard? Explain the remedial measures required to reduce the…
5. 2025 · GS3 · 10 marks What are the challenges before the Indian economy when the world is moving away from free trade and multilateralism to protectionism and bilateralism? How can these challenges be met?
6. 2024 · GS3 · 10 marks What role do environmental NGOs and activists play in influencing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) outcomes for major projects in India? Cite four examples with all important details.
7. 2023 · GS3 · 15 marks The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) has predicted a global sea level rise of about one metre by AD 2100. What would be its impact in India and the other countries in the Indian Ocean…
8. 2023 · GS3 · 10 marks Dam failures are always catastrophic, especially on the downstream side, resulting in a colossal loss of life and property. Analyze the various causes of dam failures. Give two examples of large dam…
9. 2022 · GS3 · 10 marks Discuss the types of organised crimes. Describe the linkages between terrorists and organised crime that exist at the national and transnational levels.
10. 2022 · GS3 · 15 marks Explain the causes and effects of coastal erosion in India. What are the available coastal management techniques for combating the hazard?
11. 2021 · GS3 · 10 marks Describe the key points of the revised Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). How are these different from its last update in 2005? What…
12. 2020 · GS3 · 10 marks How does the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020 differ from the existing EIA Notification, 2006?
13. 2020 · GS3 · 15 marks What are the major factors responsible for making rice-wheat system a success? In spite of this success how has this system become bane in India?
14. 2020 · GS3 · 15 marks What are the key features of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) initiated by the Government of India?
15. 2018 · GS3 · 10 marks "Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is the sine qua non to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)". Comment on the progress made in India in this regard.
16. 2018 · GS3 · 10 marks Sikkim is the first 'Organic State' in India. What are the ecological and economical benefits of Organic State?
17. 2018 · GS3 · 15 marks India's proximity to two of the world's biggest illicit opium-growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities…
18. 2017 · GS3 · 15 marks 'Climate Change' is a global problem. How India will be affected by climate change? How Himalayan and coastal states of India will be affected by climate change?
19. 2014 · GS3 · 12.5 marks Environmental Impact Assessment studies are increasingly undertaken before a project is cleared by the Government. Discuss the environmental impacts of coal-fired thermal plants located at coal…
20. 2014 · GS3 · 12.5 marks Should the pursuit of carbon credits and clean development mechanisms set up under UNFCCC be maintained even though there has been a massive slide in the value of a carbon credit? Discuss with…
21. 2013 · GS3 · 10 marks What are the consequences of illegal mining? Discuss the Ministry of Environment and Forests' concept of GO AND NO GO zones for coal mining sector.