India can become a biodiversity champion

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Environment, Conservation

Source: TH 

Context: India currently hosts 17% of the planet’s human population and 17% of the global area in biodiversity hotspots, placing it at the helm to guide the planet in becoming biodiversity champion.

Programmes launched in India towards biodiversity conservation:

• The Union Budget 2023: It mentioned “Green Growth” as one of the seven priorities/Saptarishis.
• The National Mission for a Green India: It aims to increase forest cover on degraded lands and protect existing forested lands.
• The Green Credit Programme: It incentivises environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies.
• The Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI): It is significant because of the importance of mangroves and coastal ecosystems in mitigating climate change.
• The PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM): It aims to reduce inputs of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, which is critical for sustaining agriculture.
• The Amrit Dharohar scheme: It is expected to encourage optimal use of wetlands and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities.
  • The recent intervention by the Union Ministry of Environment to stop the draining of Haiderpur, a Ramsar wetland in UP, to safeguard migratory waterfowl is encouraging.
• All the above initiatives are critical, as the country is facing serious losses of natural assets such as soils, land, water, and biodiversity.

International initiative:

• At the UN Biodiversity Conference (2022) in Montreal, Canada, 188 country representatives adopted an agreement known as the 30×30 pledge.
• It aims to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss by conserving 30% of the world’s land and 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Challenges faced by India: Climate change → Global warming → Increases pest attack and diseases in crops/higher demands for water → reducing farm yields

Way ahead for these programmes to address the current state of biodiversity:

• Evidence-based implementation: It is critical not only for the success of these efforts but also for the documentation of lessons learnt for replication.
• New programmes: Should effectively use modern concepts of sustainability and valuation of ecosystems that consider ecological-cultural-sociological aspects of our biological wealth.
• Reduction in water use in key sectors: Such as agriculture by encouraging –
  • Changes to less-water-intensive crops such as millet
  • Investments in water recycling in urban areas using a combination of grey and blue-green infrastructure.
• Ecological restoration rather than tree plantation: As far as the Green India Mission is concerned, choosing sites to ensure ecological connectivity in landscapes fragmented by linear infrastructure.
• Local community involvement: Traditional knowledge and practices of these communities (local and nomadic) should be integrated into the implementation plans.
• Each programme should include significant educational/research funding: To critically appraise and bring awareness to India’s biological wealth.

Conclusion:

• The sum and variation of our biological wealth/biodiversity are essential to the future of this planet.
• With this in mind, the Indian govt. is planning to launch the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing soon, using the power of interdisciplinary knowledge for greening India and its economy.

Insta Links:

Biodiversity loss to raise India’s bankruptcy risk by 29%

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2014)