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Invasive alien species

Species that spread where they were brought and crowd out what was there, plant and animal, on land and in water, and the plans, conventions and clearing drives against them. Prelims has asked why Prosopis juliflora is in the news and which body develops the Global Invasive Species Database.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2023: the body behind the Global Invasive Species Database

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National Management Plan of Invasive Species

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Prelims and Mains

India has never had a single national plan for invasive species, and the inventory such a plan would have to be built on has now been handed over.

  • The Botanical Survey of India (BSI) gave the National Biodiversity Authority a State wise inventory of potential invasive species.
  • That inventory will feed a National Management Plan of Invasive Species.
  • The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has separately prepared an album of 45 major invasive plant species.
  • The National Working Plan Code, 2023 provides for managing invasive species and for using native species in restoration.

What changed

  1. 10 Aug 2026

    PIB, 10 Aug 2026: National plan on invasive alien species being prepared (opens in a new tab)

Invasive weeds in elephant habitat

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Prelims and Mains

A forest can stand intact and still hold nothing an elephant will eat. Assam has begun clearing the invaders out of one reserve forest and burning the cleared biomass into biochar rather than letting it rot back.

  • The work started in Khalingduar Reserve Forest, Udalguri.
  • The target weeds are Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata and Mikania micrantha, which choke native fodder.
  • Seed balls help native vegetation regenerate.

What changed

  1. 23 Aug 2026

    The Hindu, 23 Aug 2026: Assam elephant habitat: recovery hope rides on biochar from invasive plants (opens in a new tab)

Prosopis juliflora

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Prelims

There is no point releasing a grassland bird into scrub, so the tree comes out before the bird goes in.

  • The grassland the Soft Release Centre stands on was cleared of Prosopis juliflora first.
  • Grassland restoration was reviewed alongside the bustard programme at Bhuj.

What changed

  1. 13 Sep 2026

    PIB, 13 Sep 2026: Shri Bhupender Yadav reviews progress of Great Indian Bustard Conservation, Grassland Restoration and Project Cheetah at Bhuj; Releases Gujarat Action Plan for GIB Conservation (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2018: why Prosopis juliflora is in the news