Environment › Biodiversity governance
Biodiversity and wildlife law in India
India's own biodiversity and wildlife law and the bodies that run it: the Biological Diversity Act and its three tiers, access and benefit sharing, the Wildlife (Protection) Act and its schedules, zoos and animal welfare. Prelims has asked about Biodiversity Management Committees and what Schedule I protection means.
All 5 subjects shown; the 3 that changed from 1 to 15 July 2026 are marked.Show only these
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
Copy link to Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972Prelims and Mains
The law India acts under at home sorts species into schedules, and which schedule an animal sits in decides what a seizure can be charged as.
- Schedule I gives the highest protection, as it does to the leopard and to every species in the seizures above.
- Schedule IV, added in 2022, brought exotic species into the Act, which is how an animal with no Indian range is covered at all.
What changed
9 Sep 2026
PIB, 9 Sep 2026: DRI seizes two leopard pelts; 180 live Indian star tortoises; 12 live tokay geckos; around 24 kg pangolin scales and 500 grams tiger bones (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 9 Sep 2026: As 5 orangutans find new home in Odisha, a probe into how they landed there (opens in a new tab)
8 Sep 2026
The Indian Express, 8 Sep 2026: 5 baby orangutans found in Odisha forest. Why this is a big problem (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 8 Sep 2026: Five young orangutans rescued from Odisha's Balasore district (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2017: what Schedule I protection means for a tortoise
Biological Diversity Act, 2002
Copy link to Biological Diversity Act, 2002Prelims and Mains
The Act is how India gives effect to the Convention on Biological Diversity at home, and it splits the work across three tiers, with the committee in the village at the bottom of it.
- The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023 made most offences civil rather than criminal, and Rules followed in 2024.
- The Environment Minister has asked States to make their 2.76 lakh Biodiversity Management Committees functional rather than merely constituted.
- He also asked that People's Biodiversity Registers become dynamic planning instruments rather than one time records.
- State rules are to be aligned with the 2023 amendment and the 2024 Rules.
Who does what
National level
- National Biodiversity Authority, a statutory body in Chennai
- Decides access by foreign entities and fixes benefit sharing
State and UT level
- State Biodiversity Boards and UT Biodiversity Councils
- Regulate commercial use by Indian entities
Local level
- Over 2.76 lakh Biodiversity Management Committees, set up by local bodies
- Prepare People's Biodiversity Registers
What changed
5 Sep 2026
7 Jul 2026Updatealso in news
- The Natural History Museum at Mizoram University has been notified as the 21st Designated Repository under Section 39 of the Act. A repository keeps authenticated specimens of biological resources accessed under the Act.
Background reading: PIB, 6 Sep 2026: 16th National Meet of State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils held at Chandigarh (opens in a new tab)
Access and benefit sharing
Copy link to Access and benefit sharingPrelims and Mains
The promise of the Act is that anyone who profits from a biological resource pays something back to the place it came from, and the National Biodiversity Authority says those payouts have now crossed ₹200 crore.
- Much of the recent money came from seed companies paying for vegetable seed bought in open markets, where no provider could be identified.
- It was shared out among State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils by each State's crop area, rather than reaching a community directly.
- Under Section 32(2) of the Act, a board must spend what it receives on conservation, People's Biodiversity Registers, Biodiversity Heritage Sites and community livelihoods.
What changed
5 Sep 2026
22 Jul 2026Update
- The National Biodiversity Authority allocated ₹6.67 crore to eleven cotton growing States from money paid by a company for research access to over 25,000 cotton varieties, where no individual conserver could be traced.
- Its rule for such cases: where the source region can be established, the money goes to State Biodiversity Boards in proportion to the area under the crop, and where it cannot, it stays in the National Biodiversity Fund.
- Cumulative disbursal under access and benefit sharing has crossed ₹153 crore.
PIB, 22 Jul 2026: NBA releases Rs 6.67 crore under Access and Benefit Sharing Mechanism for Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Support in 11 cotton-growing States (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 31 Jul 2026: NBA releases over ₹24 Lakh as Benefit Sharing to Farmers, Research Institutions and State Biodiversity Boards (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2023: Biodiversity Management Committees, the Nagoya Protocol and collection fees
National Board for Wildlife
Copy link to National Board for WildlifePrelims and Mains
The National Board for Wildlife is the apex statutory wildlife body under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, chaired by the Prime Minister with the Environment Minister as vice chairperson. Its Standing Committee gives the wildlife clearance that any project inside a protected area needs. Such a project must pass two separate gates: environmental clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, and wildlife clearance routed through the State Board for Wildlife.
What changed
30 Jul 2026Update
- The PARIVESH clearance portal now carries a map based tool that measures how close a proposed site lies to protected areas, eco sensitive zones, wetlands and coastal zones.
9 Jul 2026Update
- The 91st Standing Committee meeting took up more than 100 proposals, a conservation strategy for the one horned rhinoceros based on the Rhino DNA Indexing System, and inclusion of the pygmy hog in the Species Recovery Programme.
8 Jul 2026New subject
- Retired forest officers have moved the Delhi High Court, saying the Standing Committee approved more than 97 per cent of proposals to divert or denotify protected land between 2014 and 2026, and that the full Board met in 2025 after a gap of 13 years.