Environment & Ecology

Environment and Ecology sits in both Prelims and General Studies Paper III — biodiversity, climate negotiations, pollution, conservation law, and India's protected areas. Prelims tests it factually; Mains tests whether you can weigh conservation against development honestly.
Two habits help. First, learn the institutions and instruments as a set: which convention, which protocol, which domestic law, and what each can actually compel. Second, resist the temptation to answer every environment question as an argument for conservation. The questions that separate candidates are the ones where a genuine trade-off exists, and pretending it does not is the weaker answer.
Species, sites, indices and summit outcomes are all covered below, alongside the law that governs them.