Conservation in India: Protected Areas, Laws & Institutions
Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage Sites & Other International Labels
UNESCO launched the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme in 1971 to reconcile conservation with the needs of people who live in and around natural areas. A biosphere reserve is its unit, and it is built in three concentric zones: a legally protected core, a buffer used for research, education and low-impact activity, and an outer transition zone where people live, farm and work. India began its own biosphere reserve scheme in 1986; the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (spanning Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) was the first, and in 2000 it also became India's first site on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The Gulf of Mannar reserve is a marine biosphere reserve.
| Label | Given under | What it recognises | Indian examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biosphere Reserve | UNESCO MAB Programme (1971) | A landscape managed for conservation and sustainable use, with people living in its transition zone | Nilgiri, Gulf of Mannar, Sundarban, Nanda Devi |
| World Heritage Site (natural) | UNESCO World Heritage Convention (1972) | Places of outstanding universal value | Kaziranga, Manas and Keoladeo (1985); Sundarbans (1987); Western Ghats (2012); Great Himalayan National Park (2014); Khangchendzonga (2016) — India's first mixed site |
| Ramsar Site | Ramsar Convention (1971) | Wetlands of international importance | Chilika, Keoladeo, Loktak, Sundarban Wetland |
Species Projects: Tiger, Elephant and Beyond
Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973, inaugurated at Jim Corbett National Park — India's oldest national park, created in 1936 as Hailey National Park — with nine reserves. Its logic was the umbrella-species logic: save enough forest for the tiger and you save everything beneath it. In 2006 the Wildlife Act was amended to create the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body chaired by the Union Minister of Environment, which now runs the project. Tigers are counted through the All India Tiger Estimation every four years, conducted by the NTCA with the Wildlife Institute of India, using camera traps and field surveys. Internationally, the 2010 St Petersburg Declaration of tiger-range countries set the goal of doubling wild tigers by 2022, and 29 July is Global Tiger Day.
Project Elephant (1992) is a centrally sponsored scheme that protects elephants, their habitat and corridors — narrow strips of forest that link larger habitats and allow herds to move — and addresses human–elephant conflict and the welfare of captive elephants. States notify elephant reserves under it. India also implements the CITES programme MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants). The elephant was declared India's National Heritage Animal in 2010.
| Effort | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Crocodile Conservation Project | 1975 | Captive breeding and release of the gharial, mugger and saltwater crocodile, which had been brought close to extinction |
| Project Snow Leopard | 2009 | Landscape-level conservation of high-altitude wildlife in the Himalayan states, with local communities |
| Project Cheetah | 2022 | Reintroduction of the cheetah — declared extinct in India in 1952 — beginning with animals from Namibia released at Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, followed by a batch from South Africa |
| Vulture conservation | From 2006 | Ban on veterinary diclofenac (2006); conservation breeding centres, the first at Pinjore (Haryana) |
| Sea-turtle protection | Ongoing | Protecting the mass nesting (arribada) of olive ridley turtles on the Odisha coast at Gahirmatha and Rushikulya |
Wetlands and the Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention was signed on 2 February 1971 at Ramsar, Iran, and came into force in 1975 — it is older than the modern UN environmental treaties and is not part of the UN system (its secretariat is hosted by IUCN at Gland). Its central idea is the "wise use" of wetlands: not locking them away, but using them in ways that keep their ecological character intact. India joined in 1982, and its first two sites were Chilika Lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan). The largest Ramsar site in India is the Sundarban Wetland in West Bengal.
Sites whose ecological character has changed or is likely to change because of human interference are placed on the Montreux Record, a priority list for attention. Keoladeo and Loktak (Manipur) are on it. Chilika was added in 1993 and removed in 2002 after the mouth of the lagoon was reopened and its salinity and fisheries recovered — a rare conservation success. At home, wetlands are regulated by the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, which make the States responsible for notifying and protecting them.
The Main Laws: What Each One Actually Does
The constitutional base came first. The 42nd Amendment (1976) inserted Article 48A (a Directive Principle: the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife) and Article 51A(g) (a Fundamental Duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures). The same amendment moved forests and the protection of wild animals and birds from the State List to the Concurrent List, which is why the Centre can legislate on both. The courts have since read a right to a healthy environment into Article 21 (right to life).
| Law | Core provisions | Key amendments |
|---|---|---|
| Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 | Prohibits hunting of scheduled animals except in narrowly defined cases; creates protected areas; regulates trade in wildlife and its products | 1991 — protection of specified plants; Central Zoo Authority. 2002 — conservation and community reserves; NBWL. 2006 — NTCA; Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. 2022 — schedules reduced from six to four; provisions to implement CITES |
| Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 | A State needs prior approval of the Central government to de-reserve forest land or use it for non-forest purposes; the user pays for compensatory afforestation | 2023 — renamed the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980; scope tied to land notified or recorded as forest; exemptions include strategic linear projects within 100 km of the international border, the Line of Control or the Line of Actual Control |
| Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 | The umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy: wide powers for the Centre to set standards, restrict industries and areas, and issue binding directions including closure | The parent of the EIA Notification (1994, replaced 2006), the Coastal Regulation Zone notifications, eco-sensitive zones, the wetland rules and the waste-management rules |
| Biological Diversity Act, 2002 | Implements the CBD: regulates access to biological resources and associated knowledge and ensures fair and equitable sharing of benefits; three tiers — NBA, State Biodiversity Boards, Biodiversity Management Committees | 2023 — eased requirements for users of codified traditional knowledge and AYUSH practitioners, and replaced most criminal penalties with monetary ones |
| National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 | A specialised court for environmental cases; principal bench at New Delhi, zonal benches at Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai; appeals lie to the Supreme Court | Replaced the National Environment Appellate Authority |
The schedules of the Wildlife Act decide how strongly a species is protected. After the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022, there are four: Schedule I — animal species given the highest protection; Schedule II — animal species given a lesser degree of protection; Schedule III — protected plant species; Schedule IV — specimens listed in the Appendices of CITES. The old separate vermin schedule is gone; the Central government can instead declare a wild animal (other than one in Schedule I) to be vermin for a specified area and period by notification.
The NGT has jurisdiction over civil cases raising a substantial question relating to the environment under the seven Acts listed in Schedule I of the NGT Act: the Water Act (1974), the Water Cess Act (1977), the Forest (Conservation) Act (1980), the Air Act (1981), the Environment (Protection) Act (1986), the Public Liability Insurance Act (1991) and the Biological Diversity Act (2002). In deciding cases it must apply the principles of sustainable development, precaution and "polluter pays", and it is not bound by the Code of Civil Procedure but by the principles of natural justice. With it India became, after Australia and New Zealand, one of the first countries to set up such a specialised environmental tribunal.
- 1986M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (oleum gas leak) — absolute liability for enterprises engaged in hazardous activity, with no exceptions
- 1996Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum v. Union of India — the precautionary principle and polluter pays declared part of Indian environmental law
- 1996T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India — "forest" under the Forest (Conservation) Act read in its dictionary sense, whatever the ownership or official classification
- 1996 (reported 1997)M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath — the public trust doctrine: the State holds natural resources such as rivers and forests in trust for the public
In-situ, Ex-situ and Community Conservation
In-situ conservation protects species where they live, together with their ecosystem — every protected area in this chapter is in-situ. Ex-situ conservation takes species or their genetic material out of the habitat for safekeeping. The ex-situ toolkit is wider than zoos: seed banks and gene banks (India's national gene bank is at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi; the global back-up is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway), cryopreservation of seeds, pollen, sperm and embryos in liquid nitrogen at −196 °C, tissue culture, botanical gardens, and conservation breeding centres such as the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) at Hyderabad. Every zoo in India must be recognised by the Central Zoo Authority.
Long before any statute, Indian communities protected forests on religious grounds. Sacred groves — patches of forest dedicated to a local deity, where cutting is taboo — survive across the country and often shelter species lost from the surrounding land. They are among the oldest forms of in-situ conservation.
| Local name | State |
|---|---|
| Kavu (incl. sarpa kavu, snake groves) | Kerala |
| Devrai / Devrahati | Maharashtra |
| Devarakadu | Karnataka |
| Law Kyntang (e.g. Mawphlang) | Meghalaya |
| Oran | Rajasthan |
| Sarna | Jharkhand |
- 1730Khejarli, Rajasthan — Amrita Devi and many Bishnois gave their lives to stop the felling of khejri trees; the Bishnoi tradition of protecting trees and blackbuck continues
- 1973Chipko (Garhwal Himalaya) — villagers, many of them women, hugged trees to stop commercial felling; associated with Gaura Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna
- 1983Appiko (Uttara Kannada, Karnataka) — Chipko's southern counterpart, led by Panduranga Hegde
- 1984Silent Valley (Kerala) declared a national park after a public campaign stopped a hydroelectric project that would have flooded the rainforest
- 1990Joint Forest Management — a Central resolution making village communities partners of the Forest Department in protecting degraded forests, in return for a share of the produce
The Institutions that Run Conservation
The nodal ministry is the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), which took its present name in 2014. Around it sit two kinds of body: statutory authorities, created by one of the Acts above and holding legal powers, and survey and research institutes, which supply the knowledge that the authorities act on. Learn which is which — a question may hinge on whether a body was created by an Act.
| Body | Created by | Role |
|---|---|---|
| National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) — chaired by the Prime Minister | Wildlife Act, 2002 amendment | Apex advisory body; its recommendation is required to alter the boundaries of parks and sanctuaries |
| Central Zoo Authority (CZA) | Wildlife Act, 1991 amendment (set up 1992) | Recognises and regulates zoos; coordinates conservation breeding |
| National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) | Wildlife Act, 2006 amendment | Runs Project Tiger; recommends tiger reserves; conducts tiger estimation with WII |
| Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) — New Delhi | Wildlife Act, 2006 amendment (set up 2007) | Intelligence and coordination against organised wildlife crime and illegal trade |
| National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) — Chennai | Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (set up 2003) | Approves access to biological resources by foreign entities and benefit-sharing; advises on Biodiversity Heritage Sites |
| Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) | Water Act, 1974 | Sets and monitors pollution standards; also functions under the Air Act |
| Institute | Founded · headquarters | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Botanical Survey of India (BSI) | 1890 · Kolkata | Surveys and documents India's plant resources |
| Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) | 1916 · Kolkata | Surveys and documents India's animal diversity |
| Forest Survey of India (FSI) | 1981 · Dehradun | Assesses forest cover; publishes the biennial India State of Forest Report |
| Wildlife Institute of India (WII) | 1982 · Dehradun | Autonomous institute of the ministry: wildlife research, training of protected-area managers, the biogeographic classification of India |
At the local end of the Biological Diversity Act, every local body is to constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), whose chief task is to prepare a People's Biodiversity Register documenting local biological resources and the knowledge associated with them. State governments can notify Biodiversity Heritage Sites under the same Act; the first was the Nallur Tamarind Grove in Karnataka (2007).
Key takeaways
- The Wildlife Act creates sanctuaries (S.18) and national parks (S.35) from 1972, conservation reserves (S.36A, government land) and community reserves (S.36C, private or community land) from 2002, and tiger reserves (S.38V) from 2006. No grazing in a national park; boundary changes need the NBWL (chaired by the PM).
- Biosphere reserves (UNESCO MAB, 1971), World Heritage Sites (1972 Convention) and Ramsar sites (1971) are international labels, not categories of Indian law. India's first biosphere reserve was Nilgiri (1986); eco-sensitive zones come from the Environment (Protection) Act; elephant reserves are administrative, not statutory.
- Project Tiger 1973 (launched at Corbett), run by the NTCA (2006); Project Elephant 1992 (corridors, conflict, MIKE); crocodile project 1975; Project Snow Leopard 2009; Project Cheetah 2022 at Kuno; veterinary diclofenac banned 2006 to save vultures.
- Ramsar: signed 1971 in Iran, in force 1975, India joined 1982 with Chilika and Keoladeo; largest Indian site Sundarban Wetland; Montreux Record holds Keoladeo and Loktak, while Chilika was removed in 2002. Domestic regulation: Wetlands Rules 2017.
- After the 2022 amendment the Wildlife Act has four schedules (I and II animals, III plants, IV CITES specimens) and no vermin schedule. The Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 requires Central approval for diverting forest land and was renamed the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam in 2023. The 42nd Amendment added Articles 48A and 51A(g) and put forests and wildlife in the Concurrent List.
- The NGT (2010) hears cases under seven Acts — Water 1974, Water Cess 1977, Forest Conservation 1980, Air 1981, Environment Protection 1986, Public Liability Insurance 1991, Biological Diversity 2002 — but not the Wildlife Act 1972 or the Forest Rights Act 2006. It applies sustainable development, precaution and polluter pays; appeals go to the Supreme Court.
- Statutory bodies: NBWL (2002), CZA (1991 amendment), NTCA and WCCB (2006 amendment), NBA (Chennai, 2003), CPCB (Water Act 1974). Institutes: BSI 1890 and ZSI 1916 (Kolkata), FSI 1981 and WII 1982 (Dehradun). BMCs keep People's Biodiversity Registers; first Biodiversity Heritage Site: Nallur Tamarind Grove (2007).
Practice questions (16)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
Consider the following statements:
1. Conservation reserves and community reserves were added to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 by its 2002 amendment.
2. A community reserve can be declared on private or community land where the community or individuals have volunteered to conserve wildlife.
3. Biosphere reserves are declared under Section 36A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
Which of the statements given above are correct?Show answer
Answer: A — 1 and 2 only
Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is wrong: Section 36A is the provision for conservation reserves. Biosphere reserves are not a category under the Act at all — they are designated under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme.In which of the following is the grazing of livestock expressly prohibited by the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972?
Show answer
Answer: C — National Park
The Act states that no grazing of any livestock shall be permitted in a National Park, which is why it is the stricter category. In a sanctuary, grazing can be regulated or permitted by the Chief Wildlife Warden, and a biosphere reserve's transition zone is precisely where people live and farm.The boundaries of a wildlife sanctuary or a national park cannot be altered except on the recommendation of:
Show answer
Answer: A — the National Board for Wild Life
Since the 2002 amendment, boundary alterations need the recommendation of the National Board for Wild Life, chaired by the Prime Minister. The NTCA recommends tiger reserves but is not the gatekeeper for every park and sanctuary; the CZA regulates zoos, and the NBA works under the Biological Diversity Act.With reference to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 as amended in 2022, consider the following statements:
1. The Act now has four schedules.
2. One of the schedules lists protected plant species.
3. The amended Act retains a separate schedule of vermin species.
How many of the statements given above are correct?Show answer
Answer: B — Only two
Statements 1 and 2 are correct: the 2022 amendment reduced six schedules to four — I and II for animals, III for plants and IV for CITES specimens. Statement 3 is wrong, because the vermin schedule was removed; the Centre now declares vermin by notification for a specified area and period.The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body constituted under:
Show answer
Answer: B — the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, through its 2006 amendment
The NTCA was created by the 2006 amendment to the Wild Life (Protection) Act and took over the running of Project Tiger. The Forest Rights Act shares the year 2006, which makes it the tempting wrong answer, but it deals with the rights of forest-dwellers, not with a tiger authority.Which of the following Acts are listed in Schedule I of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, so that environmental disputes under them fall within the Tribunal's jurisdiction?
1. Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
2. Biological Diversity Act, 2002
3. Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
4. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006
Select the correct answer using the code given below.Show answer
Answer: B — 2 and 3 only
Only the Biological Diversity Act and the Forest (Conservation) Act are among the seven listed Acts (Water 1974, Water Cess 1977, Forest Conservation 1980, Air 1981, Environment Protection 1986, Public Liability Insurance 1991, Biological Diversity 2002). The Wildlife Act and the Forest Rights Act — the two that look most "environmental" — are both absent.The Ramsar Convention, signed in 1971 at Ramsar in Iran, is concerned with:
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Answer: A — wetlands of international importance
Ramsar is the wetlands treaty, built on the idea of "wise use", and it came into force in 1975. Trade in endangered species is CITES, migratory species is the Bonn Convention (CMS), and hazardous wastes are covered by the Basel Convention.The "Montreux Record", maintained under the Ramsar Convention, is:
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Answer: D — a register of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred or are likely, needing priority attention
The Montreux Record flags Ramsar sites in trouble — Keoladeo and Loktak are on it. A site can leave it on recovery, as Chilika did in 2002. It is not the Ramsar List of all sites, and it is not a fund.Consider the following statements about biosphere reserves:
1. UNESCO launched the Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1971.
2. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first biosphere reserve set up in India.
3. No human settlement is permitted in any zone of a biosphere reserve.
Which of the statements given above are correct?Show answer
Answer: A — 1 and 2 only
Statements 1 and 2 are correct; Nilgiri was set up in 1986 under India's scheme and joined UNESCO's world network in 2000. Statement 3 is wrong: the transition zone is designed for people to live and work in — that is what distinguishes a biosphere reserve from a national park.Which one of the following pairs of conservation effort and its year of launch is NOT correctly matched?
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Answer: D — Project Cheetah — 2010
Project Cheetah began in 2022, when the first cheetahs from Namibia were released at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh; the cheetah had been declared extinct in India in 1952. The other three pairs are correct.Sacred forests known locally as "Law Kyntang" are found in:
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Answer: C — Meghalaya
Law Kyntang are the sacred groves of Meghalaya, the Mawphlang grove being the best known. Kerala's sacred groves are called kavu, Rajasthan's oran and Maharashtra's devrai — each a form of in-situ conservation rooted in local belief.Consider the following statements:
1. A 2023 amendment renamed the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980.
2. Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, a State government needs the prior approval of the Central government to use forest land for non-forest purposes.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?Show answer
Answer: C — Both 1 and 2
Both are correct. Prior Central approval for diverting forest land has been the heart of the 1980 Act from the start. The 2023 amendment renamed it, tied its scope to land notified or recorded as forest, and exempted certain strategic and security projects, including linear projects within 100 km of the borders.Under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, People's Biodiversity Registers are prepared by:
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Answer: B — Biodiversity Management Committees
Biodiversity Management Committees, constituted by every local body, document local resources and knowledge in People's Biodiversity Registers. The NBA and State Biodiversity Boards sit above them in the three-tier structure, and the BSI is a survey institute that the Act does not task with these registers.Which one of the following organisations is correctly paired with the city where it is headquartered?
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Answer: D — Wildlife Institute of India — Dehradun
The Wildlife Institute of India is at Dehradun, alongside the Forest Survey of India. The National Biodiversity Authority is at Chennai, and the Botanical and Zoological Surveys are both headquartered at Kolkata.Which of the following are methods of in-situ conservation?
1. Sacred groves
2. Seed banks
3. Community reserves
4. Cryopreserved gene banks
Select the correct answer using the code given below.Show answer
Answer: C — 1 and 3 only
Sacred groves and community reserves protect species in their natural habitat, so both are in-situ. Seed banks and cryopreserved gene banks store genetic material away from the habitat and are ex-situ — who runs them does not change that.Which one of the following correctly describes what the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 did for the environment?
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Answer: D — It inserted Articles 48A and 51A(g) and moved forests and the protection of wild animals and birds to the Concurrent List
The 42nd Amendment added the Directive Principle in Article 48A and the Fundamental Duty in Article 51A(g), and shifted forests and wildlife protection from the State List to the Concurrent List — not to the Union List. The right to a healthy environment was read into Article 21 by the courts, not written in by amendment.