Indian Environmental Laws & Institutions — PPSC previous year questions

The Ice Stupa project was started in 2013–14 by engineer and innovator Sonam Wangchuk of Ladakh (founder of SECMOL and the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives). Winter stream water is sprayed through a vertical pipe so that it freezes into a cone-shaped 'stupa' of ice, which melts slowly in spring to irrigate fields during the dry sowing months. Wangchuk received the Rolex Award for Enterprise (2016) and the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018) for this work.

Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without harming the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Brundtland Commission report 'Our Common Future' (1987) gave this definition. It balances economic growth with environmental protection and inter-generational equity. It does not mean just a high GNP growth rate or a high HDI value.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC, 2008) has eight missions: National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, National Mission for a Green India, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. There is no 'National Clean Air Mission'. Air quality comes under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP, 2019), which is not part of the NAPCC.

Social forestry means growing trees on community and unused land — roadsides, canal banks, village commons — with people's help. The National Commission on Agriculture (1976) made the term popular. The aim is to raise green cover and meet local needs of fuel, fodder and small timber. This eases pressure on natural forests. It is not about urbanisation, housing or water supply.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. They succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals (2000-15) and range from No Poverty (Goal 1) and Zero Hunger (Goal 2) to Partnerships for the Goals (Goal 17).

The Chipko movement began in 1973 in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. Villagers, notably women, hugged trees to prevent felling. Sunderlal Bahuguna was its most prominent leader. Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Gaura Devi (of the 1974 Reni action) led it with him. Bahuguna's slogan was 'Ecology is permanent economy'. He later led the anti-Tehri Dam agitation. Rajendra Singh, the 'Waterman of India', works on water conservation in Rajasthan, not Chipko.

The Nagoya Protocol was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, under the Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure access to genetic resources and fair sharing of benefits, so statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong because India's National Biodiversity Authority was set up in 2003 under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, years before the Nagoya Protocol existed.

SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation is the goal that targets Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). It calls for safe drinking water, proper sanitation and hygiene for all, and an end to open defecation by 2030. SDG 1 is No Poverty, SDG 5 is Gender Equality and SDG 16 is Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. In India, Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission are the flagship WASH programmes aligned with SDG 6.

All four are traditional water harvesting structures of India. Ahar-pynes are the embankment-and-channel floodwater system of south Bihar. Zabo ('impounding run-off') is the terraced catchment-pond-paddy system of Nagaland. Vav is the stepwell of Gujarat and Rajasthan (baoli or bawdi elsewhere). Kuls are the glacier-fed diversion channels of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu. Other examples asked in exams are johads (Rajasthan), khadin (Jaisalmer), eris (Tamil Nadu) and bamboo drip irrigation (Meghalaya).

Hydropower does generate electricity from flowing or falling water, so A is correct. R lists real costs too — upstream and downstream ecological damage, higher evaporation, disease and pollution, displacement of people and drowning of farmland. So R is correct as well. But these describe the drawbacks of hydropower. They do not explain why it relies on water. Both are correct and R does not explain A.