Environment, Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Pollution

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies III:

• Environmental security and Ecosystems, Conservation of Wild life, Biodiversity, Environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

This line starts with ecological basics and moves to conservation, pollution and the tool used to judge projects before they start: environmental impact assessment.

Topics in detail

Ecosystems

• Components: biotic and abiotic; producers, consumers and decomposers
• Food chains and food webs, trophic levels, the ten per cent law of energy transfer, ecological pyramids
• Biogeochemical cycles: carbon, nitrogen, water, phosphorus
• Ecological succession; ecosystem services
• Types: forest, grassland, desert, freshwater, marine, wetland and mangrove ecosystems

Environmental security

• Meaning: protection of people and nations from environmental threats
• Climate change as a threat multiplier; water, food and energy security
• Environmental migration and conflict over resources
• Climate change regime: UNFCCC (1992), the Kyoto Protocol (1997), the Paris Agreement (2015), nationally determined contributions; India's net-zero target for 2070
• National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008) and its eight missions

Biodiversity

• Levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity
• India as a megadiverse country; the four biodiversity hotspots in India (Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Sundaland)
• Threats: habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, over-exploitation, climate change
• Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), the Cartagena Protocol and the Nagoya Protocol; the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022)
• Biological Diversity Act, 2002: the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards, Biodiversity Management Committees, People's Biodiversity Registers

Conservation of wildlife

• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and its schedules; the 2022 amendment
• Protected areas: national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves, community reserves; biosphere reserves
• In-situ and ex-situ conservation: zoos, gene banks, seed banks
• Project Tiger (1973) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority; Project Elephant (1992); the reintroduction of the cheetah (2022)
• IUCN Red List categories; CITES; the Convention on Migratory Species; the Ramsar Convention on wetlands (1971)
• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006; human-wildlife conflict

Pollution and degradation

• Air pollution: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), gases, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the Air Quality Index, the National Clean Air Programme (2019)
• Water pollution: biochemical and chemical oxygen demand, sewage and industrial effluents; Namami Gange
• Soil pollution, noise pollution, plastic waste, e-waste, biomedical and hazardous waste; the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016
• Laws: the Water Act (1974), the Air Act (1981), the Environment (Protection) Act (1986); the Central and State Pollution Control Boards; the National Green Tribunal (2010)
• Land degradation, desertification (UNCCD), deforestation, soil erosion, groundwater depletion
• Ozone depletion and the Montreal Protocol

Environmental impact assessment

• Meaning and purpose; the EIA notifications of 1994 and 2006
• Stages: screening, scoping, public consultation, appraisal; Category A and Category B projects
• Strategic environmental assessment and cumulative impact assessment
• Weaknesses: quality of reports, limited public hearing, post-clearance monitoring

Overlaps

• General Studies VI: pollution and environmental issues, the Pollution Control Board, natural resources, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and climate change issues in Uttar Pradesh.
• Prelims General Studies Paper I: general issues on environmental ecology, biodiversity and climate change.