UPSC Prelims current affairs: Environment, biodiversity, climate change

Current affairs on this topic 31

Karnataka seeks ₹7,142.64 crore in Central drought aid for 177 taluks 4 October 2026
Karnataka puts its drought loss at ₹46,324 crore. How much can the Centre's disaster fund actually pay?
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.
Cabinet clears ₹1.86 lakh crore Green Energy Corridor Phase-III with 50 GWh of batteries 1 October 2026
India can build solar parks fast. Can State grids carry their power, and store it for the evening?
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?
Op-ed: Cutting food loss and waste offers India a triple win 29 September 2026
India grows enough food for 1.4 billion people. Why does so much of it rot before anyone eats it?
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?
Deep-sea discovery and environmental responsibility 19 September 2026
Critical minerals lie on the ocean floor. So do ecosystems we barely know.
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?
After a deadly glacier collapse, Nepal seeks climate compensation, not aid 9 September 2026
Nepal emits almost nothing, yet a warming world just buried its valleys. Who should pay?
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?
Centre asks Himalayan States to step up monitoring of glacial lakes and avalanche zones 4 September 2026
Can a warning reach a mountain village before a glacial lake empties into the valley below?
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?
India records its hottest August since 1901; IMD forecasts below-normal September rain 1 September 2026
A record-hot August, a 14% rain deficit and a strong El Niño: how bad can September get?

Environment, biodiversity, climate change

Current affairs on this topic 31

Background from the reference shelf

Previous-year questions 9