Conservation in India can be traced to the time of Ashoka, tracing to the Ashoka Pillar Edicts as one of the earliest conservation efforts in the world. Conservation generally refers to the act of carefully and efficiently using natural resources. Conservation efforts begun in India before 5 AD, as efforts are made to have a forest administration. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the ministry responsible for implementation of environmental and forestry program in India, which include the management of national parks, conservation of flora and fauna of India, and pollution controls.
History
Yajnavalkya Smriti, a historic Indian text on statecraft and jurisprudence, suggested to have been written before the 5th century AD, prohibited the cutting of trees and prescribed punishment for such acts. During Chandragupta's reign, there was a regular forest department led by a Kupyadhyaksha (superintendent) and Vanpalas (forest guards). Kautilya's Arthashastra says that they had a role of classifying the trees, plants and herbs and fixing their price; they imposed fines on those who fell trees without permission. It further mentions how forests were classified into three types: Reserved, those donated to Brahmins and public. Written in Mauryan period, it emphasised the need for forest administration. Ashoka went further, and his Pillar Edicts expressed his view about the welfare of environment and biodiversity.
Protected areas
As of May 2004, the protected areas of India cover 156,700 km², roughly 4.95% of the total surface area. These areas are used for in situ conservation, which involves conservation of species in their natural habitat.
Water Conservation
From the most dry regions to the wettest zones in the world, India has them all. Water is not just a natural resource but a political issue in most parts of the country. The Cauvery dispute between Karnataka-Tamil Nadu, Mahanadi dispute between Chhattisgarh-Orissa are a few examples of the tussle for water. The Tamil Nadu government's rainwater harvesting efforts civil society movements such as Environmentalist Foundation of India (E.F.I's) community based lake/pond conservation efforts are seen as efforts to conserve water in India.
Endangered species
Some endangered species in the country were reintroduced via ex situ conservation. Ex-situ conservation is rearing or cultivating, including reintroducing, a plant or animal outside their natural habitat. The reintroduction of the Indian rhinoceros at the Dudhwa National Park was a form of ex-situ conservation; it was extinct in that area. Similarly the Gangetic gharial was reintroduced in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Legislation
Forest Rights Act
Indian Forest Act, 1927
Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, Amended 2003
Wildlife Protection Act of 1972
Forests
Ecological issues are an integral and important part of environmental issues challenging India. Poor air quality, water pollution and garbage pollution – all affect the food and environment quality necessary for ecosystems.
India is a large and diverse country. Its land area includes regions with some of the world's highest rainfall to very dry deserts, coast line to alpine regions, river deltas to tropical islands. The variety and distribution of forest vegetation is large. India is one of the 12 mega regions of the world.
Indian forests types include tropical evergreens, tropical deciduous, swamps, mangroves, sub-tropical, montane, scrub, sub-alpine and alpine forests. These forests support a variety of ecosystems with diverse flora and fauna.
Until recently, India lacked an objective way to determine the quantity of forests it had, and the quality of forests it had. Forest cover measurement methods Prior to the 1980s, India deployed a bureaucratic method to estimate forest coverage. A land was notified as covered under Indian Forest Act, and then officials deemed this land area as recorded forest even if it was devoid of vegetation. By this forest-in-name-only method, the total amount of recorded forest, per official Indian records, was . Any comparison of forest coverage number of a year before 1987 for India, to current forest coverage in India, is thus meaningless; it is just bureaucratic record keeping, with no relation to reality or meaningful comparison.
