Environment › Protected areas and habitats
Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
Forests, grasslands, deserts, islands and mountain ranges as ecosystems: how forest cover is measured, forest fires, grasslands mistaken for wasteland, and the ecological protection of the Western Ghats, the Aravalli and the Himalaya. Prelims has ranked States by forest cover and asked what the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports proposed for the Western Ghats.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2019: ranking States by percentage of forest cover to State area
All 3 subjects shown; the 3 that changed from 1 July to 15 September 2026 are marked.Show only these
Forest fires
Copy link to Forest firesPrelims and Mains
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, in its 412th report, found no study linking climate change to rising Himalayan forest fires, and what the range does have is two fire seasons with different causes.
- Forest fire alerts in India come from the Forest Survey of India (FSI), read off satellite passes.
- India relies on foreign satellites, which leave two windows a day unwatched.
- The committee asked for an Indian geostationary satellite instead of the passes now relied on.
- Only about 12.5 per cent of FSI alerts in Uttarakhand were real fires, which risks alert fatigue.
- In dry forests and savannas periodic low intensity fire is part of the natural cycle, so suppressing every fire lets fuel build up and makes later fires larger.
- Odisha and the north eastern States are the most fire affected over the long term.
- The spread of chir pine into former mixed oak forest in Uttarakhand adds a thick layer of needles that is both fuel and a reason villagers burn.
Western Himalaya
- Pre-monsoon heat
- Pine needles on the forest floor
Eastern Himalaya
- Dry air
- Burning linked to shifting cultivation
What changed
7 Aug 2026
PIB, 7 Aug 2026: Parliamentary committee report on Himalayan forest fires (opens in a new tab)
24 Jul 2026Update
- The Supreme Court set aside a 2016 Uttarakhand High Court order on forest fires and sent the matter back, holding that fire needs constant monitoring that a High Court is better placed to give.
Mains: India treats fire as a disaster to be put out rather than as an ecological process to be managed.
7 Jul 2026Update
- India recorded 5,25,627 fire alerts in the 2026 season, the second highest since 2012, and activity in the first two months ran more than 80 per cent above the previous decade's average.
- Uttarakhand's season, which once began in mid March, now produces fires as early as December.
Open natural ecosystems
Copy link to Open natural ecosystemsPrelims and Mains
- 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.
- India launched its first Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems at COP17.
The barren land fallacy
A grassland is not an unfinished forest, and the species that live on open ground cannot live under a canopy.
- Ecologists warn that planting trees on grassland is not restoration but the barren land fallacy.
What changed
26 Aug 2026
PIB, 26 Aug 2026: India's second Bonn Challenge progress report and restoration finance at COP17 (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 26 Aug 2026: UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia focuses on drought resilience (opens in a new tab)
24 Aug 2026
The Hindu, 24 Aug 2026: What is the barren land fallacy? (opens in a new tab)
Background reading: PIB, 17 Aug 2026: India at UNCCD COP17: guide to grasslands, Bonn Challenge progress and drought resilience (opens in a new tab)
The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area
Copy link to The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive AreaPrelims and Mains
A belt is drawn around one park by the Centre, but an Ecologically Sensitive Area can be drawn over a whole mountain range, and eleven years on nobody has agreed where the line falls.
- It is notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the same law as an eco-sensitive zone, but may cover a whole landscape rather than a belt around one park.
- The Ghats run through six States, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and are a World Heritage Site and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
- A fifth draft notification lapsed with the area still unnotified, and the expert panel's tenure was extended by a year.
- Gujarat and Goa appear to agree, Maharashtra wants a review, and Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are still negotiating.
- Karnataka has opposed throughout, citing livelihoods in its ten Ghats districts, so a phased State by State rollout is possible.
Gadgil panel, reported 2011
- The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, chaired by Madhav Gadgil
- Recommended 142 talukas as an Ecologically Sensitive Area
- Graded regulation, built upward from the gram sabha
Kasturirangan group, reported 2013
- The High Level Working Group, chaired by K. Kasturirangan
- Cut the area to about 37 per cent of the Ghats
- Prohibitions confined to specified activities
What changed
1 Aug 2026
The Hindu, 1 Aug 2026: Western Ghats: conservation with science and dialogue (opens in a new tab)
27 Jul 2026Update
- The Centre issued a seventh draft notification on the day the sixth lapsed, proposing 56,825.7 sq km across six States as ecologically sensitive.
- Karnataka (20,668 sq km) and Maharashtra (17,340 sq km) carry the largest shares, followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Gujarat. Karnataka opposes the notification outright.
- The expert committee examining the States' views has been given until July 2027.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2017: the number of States the Western Ghats are spread over
- Prelims 2016: the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports on the Western Ghats