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Environment › Conservation initiatives

Afforestation, restoration and conservation outside protected areas

Planting and restoration, and conservation outside notified parks: the national afforestation schemes and green credits, trees outside forests, community and other conserved areas, corridors, and the nature of cities. Prelims has asked about the aim of the Green India Mission.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2014: conserving biodiversity together with traditional human life

Showing 2 of 5 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 July 2026.Show all

National CAMPA

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Prelims and Mains

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority holds and releases the money paid by users of diverted forest land, under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016.

What changed

  1. 10 Jul 2026New subject

    • Its governing body approved a recovery plan for river dolphins, Project Snow Leopard Phase II with a second population estimation, a conservation plan for the Indian rhinoceros and continued support for the Sangai.
    • States must now submit Annual Plans of Operation through a digital system, and a geospatial laboratory will check plantations by satellite.
    • The Harit-SANKALP portal traces seed sources and nurseries, and 652 Nagar Vans and Vatikas have been developed so far.

    PIB, 10 Jul 2026: Four new Wildlife and Forestry Conservation Projects for Dolphins, Snow Leopards, Wild Water Buffalo and Indian Rhinoceros approved by GB CAMPA (opens in a new tab)

Sponge cities

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Mains

A sponge city holds rain where it falls, through wetlands, parks, permeable paving and retention ponds, instead of piping it away through drains that fail in a heavy spell.

What changed

  1. 7 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news

    • Mumbai's July flooding showed the cost of losing the creeks, salt pans and wetlands that once absorbed rain. A sponge city uses wetlands, parks, permeable paving and retention ponds to hold rain where it falls.

    The Indian Express, 7 Jul 2026: Mumbai's flooding shows what happens when a city loses the wetlands and creeks that used to absorb its rain (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

  • Open natural ecosystems · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems

    India's open natural ecosystems, its grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts, are still recorded in many places as wastelands, and lose out in land use decisions accordingly.